Singer Steve Green wrote a song that speaks of the generation before us living high-road examples of faith:

Those who’ve gone before us line the way,
Cheering on the faithful, encouraging the weary,
Their lives a stirring testament to God’s sustaining grace.

I look back to my four grandparents, and although three of them had “gone” before I was born, they left footprints of lives that were “stirring testaments to God’s grace.” Each of them lived through severe hardship, yet letters we found were proof of strong relationships with the Lord.

The one grandparent I did know, my mother’s mother Signa, died when I was three. I have only a handful of memories, but she did two significant things for me. She raised my mom, and she was a faithful witness for Christ.

Signa came to America from Sweden as a young girl and married a widower whose 26 year old wife had died of pneumonia leaving him with a baby boy. Signa saw a need and stepped in to help when little Everett was 3, marrying into motherhood in 1908.

After Signa and Ed had been married 5 years, Everett died in a school yard accident, crushed by a heavy iron gate that fell off its hinges. At that time, Signa had given her husband three additional children that were ages 4, 2, and 1. A 4th and 5th child would follow. But death struck a second blow when another son died at 6 months.

Our Mom remembered standing next to her father as this baby brother died in his arms. Overcome with sorrow, Signa had left the room, unable to bear the sight of a second child passing away.

Signa struggled with asthma most of her life, necessitating leaving smoky Chicago during summer’s heat. Her husband, together with 5 other men, bought a cottage in Michigan, and as school let out, Signa left for “the country.” She took her brood of 5 and also the 6 children of a widowed relative. Without benefit of electricity or running water, Signa cared for 11 children by herself from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

When school resumed, she shipped the children home to her husband and stayed alone in Michigan until the first frost. No doubt this was a nourishing time for her, and the photo shows a worn-out but joyful Signa (on the right) enjoying a day at the beach with a friend.

Signa dealt with the stranglehold of the Great Depression, her husband’s diabetes, and eventually his terminal cancer. She was also concerned over one of her children who was epileptic, keeping her “at home” throughout her life. Signa died in her sleep at age 69, her faith in tact and her witness strong.

The chorus of Steve Green’s song could very well have been Signa’s prayer for the generations to follow:

Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful.
May the fire of our devotion light their way.
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe
And the lives we live inspire them to obey.

Signa was quietly remarkable, and I hope she knows the footprints she left have indeed inspired us. That’s because the steps she followed were those of God.

“I’ve followed [the Lord] closely, my feet in his footprints, not once swerving from his way.” (Job 23:11)