New Church Life July/Aug 2014 | Page 48

n e w c h u r c h l i f e : j u ly / au g u s t 2 0 1 4 was her involvement in the lives of her nieces and nephews, great-nieces and nephews, and eventually great, great-nieces and nephews. There are memories of girls playing with dress-up costumes on the third floor of the Hyatt house, while Morna was present but giving the children space to play without intruding. A number of them also remember going to Benade Hall with her as she worked in her office and being allowed to explore. Many nieces and nephews had their education at the Academy supported by Morna’s gifts of “Sons’ Stamps” and tuition prepayment certificates. While she was personally frugal in many aspects of life she generously supported a number of nieces and nephews or their children. Morna was also remembered as someone who consciously practiced saying “Thank you.” One grand-niece recalls her saying thank you for everything all the time. It was still a feature of her life through her oldest years. One great niece recalls asking Morna about her never marrying. She writes: Once on a work weekend at Kinkykill in the ‘90s I had the opportunity to sit on the porch and talk with her and I asked her why she’d remained single... and she told me that she’d had opportunities but that none was more tempting than the good life she had. She went on to tell me that while she understood that lots of women felt repressed in her time, she’d always felt free and confident as a woman, and that she was grateful to her parents and family for that; and that lastly she was looking forward to going to the other world where she would meet “him.” A person who knew Morna for decades at the Academy observed that she was “one of the single most memorable, charitable, intelligent, industrious, useful people I’ve ever been privileged to know and associate with. I always imagined her passing into God’s Kingdom without needing a stop in the spiritual world.” Morna has entered into her eternal life with many family and friends to catch up with, and a wonderful new life to explore with her keen attention to detail. For many of us it isn’t hard to picture her being quickly welcomed into heaven and coming into an inner beauty that many people recognized within her. It is easy to picture her continuing the useful life that she so enjoyed. 340