Bessie’s mother died when she was five years old. Her father got a job in Calgary, and his children did not want to go with him, so they stayed and raised Bessie. Bessie had a friend named Dorothy Diehl (later Flaxman). Mrs. Diehl acted as a mother to Bessie. Bessie did not want to call her “Mrs. Diehl,” nor did she think she should call her “Mom,” so she called her “Mrs. Mother.” That’s how I knew her. All her children knew that Bessie called her “Mrs. Mother.”
Mrs. Mother’s maiden name was Armstrong. Mrs. Mother and her brothers and sisters called their mother Ole Mama. Mrs. Armstrong was very much a matriarch. Everyone did what she said. In January 1935, Ole Mama made a pronouncement to the clan. “We have all lived for the devil long enough. We're going down to the revival to get saved.”
Bessie went with Dorothy and the entire Armstrong clan to the Christian Missionary Alliance revival. She and Dorothy were acting up. They were going to be asked to leave. At the invitation, an older woman asked Dorothy if she wanted to respond. Dorothy said she would if Bessie would. Bessie said she would respond because Dorothy was her friend.
That night, Bessie went home and told her sister Molly that she had been saved. Molly asked, “What does that mean?” Bessie replied, “I shook the preacher’s hand.”
Apparently she had been saved. She found her mother’s Bible and was in it from that point on. She was active in ISCI in high school. She went to Prairie Bible College in 1939, graduated in 1942, and became a missionary to homesteaders in the Peace River country of Alberta. Then she was on ISCI staff in Toronto from 1945-1947 and in Calgary from 1947-1948.
Bessie went to the first international missions conference in 1946 (Dec. 27-31) in Toronto. (This conference is now called Urbana.) There she committed herself to foreign missions. In December 1948, she went to Yokohama to restart the Kyoritsu Bible College for Women. I met her in November 1950. I was very impressed. I was the only man there for dinner with the women missionaries: Miss Webster-Smith in her sixties, Mary Ballentyne in her forties, Bessie in her thirties, Maxine in her twenties.
I said, “Bessie, how old are you?”
“Thirty-one. How old are you?”
“Twenty-three. Why didn’t you wait for me?”
“I didn’t know you were coming.”
I asked her to marry me several times from February to July. She said yes in July. We were married in April 1952 in Yokohama. We were married 58 ½ years. She went to be with the Lord on September 18, 2010.
Mrs. Mother’s maiden name was Armstrong. Mrs. Mother and her brothers and sisters called their mother Ole Mama. Mrs. Armstrong was very much a matriarch. Everyone did what she said. In January 1935, Ole Mama made a pronouncement to the clan. “We have all lived for the devil long enough. We're going down to the revival to get saved.”
Bessie went with Dorothy and the entire Armstrong clan to the Christian Missionary Alliance revival. She and Dorothy were acting up. They were going to be asked to leave. At the invitation, an older woman asked Dorothy if she wanted to respond. Dorothy said she would if Bessie would. Bessie said she would respond because Dorothy was her friend.
That night, Bessie went home and told her sister Molly that she had been saved. Molly asked, “What does that mean?” Bessie replied, “I shook the preacher’s hand.”
Apparently she had been saved. She found her mother’s Bible and was in it from that point on. She was active in ISCI in high school. She went to Prairie Bible College in 1939, graduated in 1942, and became a missionary to homesteaders in the Peace River country of Alberta. Then she was on ISCI staff in Toronto from 1945-1947 and in Calgary from 1947-1948.
Bessie went to the first international missions conference in 1946 (Dec. 27-31) in Toronto. (This conference is now called Urbana.) There she committed herself to foreign missions. In December 1948, she went to Yokohama to restart the Kyoritsu Bible College for Women. I met her in November 1950. I was very impressed. I was the only man there for dinner with the women missionaries: Miss Webster-Smith in her sixties, Mary Ballentyne in her forties, Bessie in her thirties, Maxine in her twenties.
I said, “Bessie, how old are you?”
“Thirty-one. How old are you?”
“Twenty-three. Why didn’t you wait for me?”
“I didn’t know you were coming.”
I asked her to marry me several times from February to July. She said yes in July. We were married in April 1952 in Yokohama. We were married 58 ½ years. She went to be with the Lord on September 18, 2010.
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