A true soldier in word, deed

by R. Andrew Cummings

On August 20, 2004 I wrote the following in the Searchlight under the rubric “They all Serve”.

“Have you heard of Mother Priam?

In her body, soul and mind she is nothing but a soldier of Christ. By dint of her untiring battle for good she has turned theatres of war into zones of peace – a real and lasting cease-fire that has held for over 50 years or so. The white flag of redemptive surrender, still aloft, has produced several distinguished pastors, preachers and converts. Now in her nineties, Mother Gladys Priam is still aglow albeit happily confined to the nursing home near the river’s edge in Arnos Vale”. {{more}}

The earthly glow went out last week after 96 years of brightly burning. As the female caretaker of my mother, my aunt Pauline Young and uncle Eardlie Allen after the untimely death of their mother in 1926, Gladys instilled values of faith, love, peace, hope, justice, humility and gratitude. She was made up of all these virtues tightly rolled into a composite whole.

The same things said about the saintly Mother Theresa of international fame may be safely said of our own Mother Priam: “She was something beautiful for God – a pencil in his hand”.

Many of us have either been influenced, molded or shaped by this wonderful servant of God.

May her precepts and example so shine that all our lives may be lit up and enriched forever.

May she rest in peace!