Any year you lose a parent is a bad year...

This was the photo used on the front

of the memorial tract. My father, as many

knew him, loving life.

Today is the last day of 2012, and I wanted to write the final post of the year about the worst day of the year, and then put it to rest.
As readers of this blog know, I was raised by God-fearing parents who taught me the Truth. Sadly, on August 15, 2012, my father, aged 81, passed away at his home in Fairhope, AL., surrounded by my mother, myself and my brother ans sister.
It was not a surprise- I had gone for a visit in December 2011, when he was hospitalized to remove a cancerous kidney. Doctors told him then that the cancer had spread and he would likely have about 8 months to live. They were correct.
I went again in April 2012 for another visit, and while in some discomfort, my father and I were able to have some good conversations. I remember asking him why he had made the decision, at 40 years of age, to sell our possessions and take the family to Ecuador to serve where the need was greater (Keeping in mind that the Ecuador of the 1970's was closer to the U.S. of the 1870's. While there still might be culture shock, it's far less significant now than it was then.)
Anyway, he said, "I thought if we didn't do it then, we might never have had another chance."
He was like that- as the "patriarch", he made the decisions and the rest of us fell in line. I think we all turned out okay.
Knowing the end was near in August, I flew back to Alabama from Las Vegas on a Tuesday. Within a couple of days, he took a turn for the worse, and hospice was called. He was gone a few days later.
The service at the Kingdom Hall was well attended by hundreds of people who knew my father, and I appreciated the expressions of a number of brothers and sisters, many of whom I had known for more than 40 years, but not seen in decades.
Some had been elders when I was just a teenager and had encouraged me to stand firm in the Truth. Now they are nearing the end of their course in this system and I am encouraged by their faithful decades of service.
Because my father had known his time was limited, he selected the brother to give the memorial talk and made many arrangements. He always liked to have everything done in an orderly way.
I wrote the contents of the memorial tract that was handed out, and much of that was used in the brother's talk.
I present now the text of that tract and the photos that were included. We opened with song 11 and concluded with his favorite Kingdom Song, #56, "Please Hear My Prayer".

"Bill Winder married his high school sweetheart, Jean McCullers, in 1949. He was 18 and she was 17. They were in such a hurry that they had decided to elope in their home town of Fort Worth, TX.

They enjoyed more than 63 years of married life together and had three children, Jesse, Joe Bill, and Eva. He also has three grandchildren; Jamison and Rob Winder and Heather Woodin.

Bill & Jean 1956

 Bill always loved cars. He loved to work on them, customize them, race them, and repair them- often for his less-mechanically inclined friends.

Bill had a restless spirit that set him apart from many of his friends. After marriage he attended Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State) in Stillwater, Oklahoma, where he studied engineering. They had their first child Jesse Ray, in 1952, and soon after moved to Phoenix, AZ where Joe Bill was born in 1955. Bill said he was on his way to California to get into racing, but job and family got in the way.

By 1959 the Winder family was living in Arlington, TX. and Bill was working as an electrical engineer. A life-changing event happened when a co-worker who was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses gave him some Bible-based literature. Bill devoured the magazines and books and knew he had found the Truth. But about this time, his company offered him a job in Germany, installing high level secure phone systems at U.S. Air Force bases throughout Europe.

Always ready for adventure, Bill accepted the position and in 1960 the family was off to live in Wiesbaden, Germany. From the literature Bill had read, he knew the German Branch Office of Jehovah’s Witnesses was also located in Wiesbaden. So not long after arriving, he took a taxi over to the Branch and in his broken German, conveyed to the brothers that this big American standing in their lobby wanted some witnesses to come to his home and study the Bible with his family.

Soon after, the Drebbinger’s (a German witness doctor who spoke English and his American wife) stopped by and began studying with the entire Winder family in the “Let God Be True Book”. During the three years that the family lived in Germany, they finished that book and also studied the “This Means Everlasting Life” book. One new member of the family was added with the adoption of Eva Marie in 1962.

When Bill and the family left Germany in 1963, they lived briefly in Texas until Bill was offered a job in Mobile, Alabama. On arrival, he contacted the local brothers and resumed his Bible Study. The family began attending meetings and made rapid progress in the Truth. Bill and Jean were both baptized as Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1964. They made many dear friends in those early days and many of those friendships have endured nearly 50 years all the way to the present. Several times through the years, Bill and Jean traveled with some of those friends to Europe to attend international conventions.

Bill & Jean 1965

Bill was adamant about always conducting a family Bible Study and setting a good example in field service and meeting attendance. But in 1971, he made a decision that truly showed what he valued most when he announced to the family that he was quitting his job, selling the house, cars, and everything else, and moving the family to serve where there was a great need for Kingdom preachers in the faraway country of Ecuador, South America.  

The family spent two happy years in Ecuador and returned to the United States in 1973 to take up residence in Baldwin County, AL. Except for a short stint in Lubbock, TX, Bill and Jean have lived here ever since and proved a rich spiritual asset in the Fairhope  congregation where he served as an elder for many years. Bill never lost the love he had for the Spanish field, so in 2007 (at the age of 77), he took a Spanish language class and he and Jean began also attending the Robertsdale Spanish congregation where they developed many dear friendships.

Winder family going to an Assembly - 1965

As a husband, father, grandfather, and faithful witness of Jehovah, Bill influenced the lives of countless individuals in a positive and upbuilding way. Now he has run the race, faithful to the finish.  He is missed, but we look forward to enjoying his association one again the in the promised New World, a time when “death will be no more”."

Note:

Some may wonder how my mother is doing after losing her mate after 63 years of marriage. Fortunately, she lives in a small town where brothers & sisters will often drop to visit. She is a healthy 81 years young, very spry and energetic, lives on her own with her little dog, and drives her PT Cruiser to the Kingdom Hall and anywhere else she wants to go. She says she's coming out to Vegas for a visit in the spring.