TRIBUTE TO RUTH GLASGOW

27.JUL.07

Eulogy of the late Ruth Rebecca Glasgow, also known as Tanty Ruth of Questelles

Prepared by Miss Mineva Glasgow (Read by Justin Glasgow)

On November 12, 1926 new life sparked in the home of Mazie Neptune and Richard Edwards of Pembroke when a new rose budded (the 7th of their 11 children). As Providence would have it, her parents named her Ruth Rebecca after two of the most devoted and well-loved women of the Bible.

Mother Ruth grew up in Pembroke and Rillan Hill and attended the Questelles Government School. On attaining Standard six (at age 15), she was forced to leave school to enter the world of work, since secondary education was not really the prevailing trend at that time. Her mother sent her to learn to ‘sew’ to become a seamstress at Miss Baker at Buccament Bay.{{more}} She stayed there for one month. However, that one month stint served her in good stead in later years because she was as good a seamstress as anyone making clothes for herself, her children and several persons in the community.

Her sewing career was short-lived due to the fact that she left to meet her Aunt Marie at Belair who was looking for a young recruit to assist her with her domestic chores at the Casson’s at Sion Hill. It was here that she was initiated into domestic work. She spent six months there before returning to join her mother and siblings who had now moved to Questelles.

Given her independent nature, versatility and her desire to survive, she sought and found work with the Public Works Department as a water carrier. It was during this time that she caught the eyes of our father, the deceased Egbert Glasgow. In her own words and the words of her long-standing best friend, Hilda Roberts “Scow immediately stopped me (Ruth) from working and took me (her) home to keep house” Since 1946 both of them united their lives. He went to work and she stayed at home, but being the industrious and enterprising woman that she was, she did not sit idly by. She ventured into a small cottage industry making some of the best sugar cakes, tarts, sweet potato pudding and coconut drops that anyone could have desired. Many of the persons present at this funeral can attest to the uniqueness of her dainties.

In retrospect, I am sure that she would have given competition to anyone of these modern large-scale cottage industries if the capital was available because she possessed the requisite risk-appetite.

Mother was unsurpassed (inimitable) in her role as a wife and Mother. The words of Solomon in Proverbs 31:10-31 encapsulate Mother’s tenure, for indeed she was a virtuous woman, whose price was far above rubies; a woman who looked well after her household even when we tried to prevent her because of her failing health. She was a cook par excellence. Truly many women have done excellently, but Mother you excelled them all. Ruth Glasgow was a Mother to her own children and grand children and foster mother to many who passed through her hands and home. It was because of this that she was called “Mother” and “Tanty Ruth” by many persons who were not even blood relatives.

Mother was everything to everyone – wife, homemaker, counselor, friend, confidante and problem solver.

Mother had a strong personality, an indomitable will. I am convinced that these traits together with her faith in God kept her going during the last few months of her illness. Ruth Glasgow was a very generous woman, but she knew what it meant to make ends meet and to save for the “rainy day”.

Mother was raised as an Anglican, but became a Seventh-day Adventist in November 1967 during an Evangelistic Crusade conducted by Pastor Fitzroy Maitland. She spent the remainder of her days as a faithful member in the Questelles Seventh-day Adventist Church. She was not one who loved the applause and praise of men so she would hardly be seen out front, but she would study the Sabbath School Lesson with her friends who visited the home regularly and hold fruitful discussions about spiritual matters.

In spite of Mother’s quiet disposition, she would not allow anyone to walk over her family. She would let you know in her own quiet, unassuming way that this was not right. She loved and upheld justice and rebuked unfairness unequivocally.

She stood by our dad’s side in raising her 6 children and helping to shaped and mould us into who we are today. Undoubtedly she was proud of our achievements but was never boastful. She was a strict disciplinarian and never failed to use the rod when it became necessary. She loved her six children and although two of them were overseas, she kept in constant contact and would send goodies when any reliable person was traveling. She found the strength to continue loving and praying for all of us. Her favourite wish was “Lord, help me to see my children pass the worse”, God granted her that request. The six of us are grown and are holding our own in society.

Today, we celebrate the completion of the journey of a matriarch. It has been a journey of trials and triumphs, successes and failures. She has gone to rest after battling with illness for the past three years, but she is not forgotten. She has left a legacy in her children and grandchildren.

Mother you will be greatly missed by your children-Sylvia, Kenlyn, Mineva, Keith, Royden and Glenys, grandchildren, great grand children, sisters, brother, other relatives and friends, but we are confident that the God whom you served and about whom you have taught us will give us the strength to go on.

Sleep on Mother dear until Jesus the Life-Giver will come and take you home to live with Him when “the tabernacle of God will be with me,” and you and all the faithful of the ages will rest from your labours and trials, safe on that beautiful shore. Until then sweet be your rest.