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.
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