How Gertie Has Spent Her 108 Years

     Gertie Abkes of Denver turned 108 today and hoped to get 108 cards as a gift. She was born four months after the Titanic sank and has survived two pandemics. During her lifetime, the world has moved from model T’s to Mars rovers, and I asked her what she thought about all the changes.     
     “It’s just lifestyle changes,” she told me matter-of-factly over the phone.     
     “So what’s the secret of your many years?”     
     She chuckled. “I guess God knows what he wants to do with me, and I follow His path. But I’m just an ordinary person.”     
     Gertie worked as a nurse. She and Leonard had no children and were married for six-two years until he died of cancer. She hated to give up her Buick when she quit driving at 100. She watches baseball on Saturdays (she told me the scores ), keeps her apartment clean, and wonders what Trump will do. Ordinary things.     
     Gertie reminds me of how unspectacular most of our lives are. Every day we put one foot in front of the other, and all the while God knows what he wants to do with us. For those who follow God’s path like Gertie, Henry Martyn says, “If (God) has work for me to do, I cannot die.” John Piper agrees: “I am immortal until my work is done.”     
     So even in my many unspectacular days, my life matters, just as Gertie’s does. That comforts me.     
     As for Gertie, word got out about her birthday, and she has received more than 400 cards.
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     Photo: Clermont Park.