This is a Tribute to Mary as prepared for the memorial service being held on February 11th at Wonder Bible Chapel, starting at 6 pm...

Mary, my one and only, who was always afraid that I would go to heaven first and leave her alone, got to go first and left me alone.
Mary was born to missionary parents Joseph and Wilma Nash while they were home from the field in Glendale, California, on January 9th, 1948, She was the second of three children to be born and raised by them, being survived by her older sister Ruth and her younger brother Jim.
She met me, her future spouse, at New Hope Christian School where she graduated in 1965, while her father was the Principle. She continued her education at Multnomah School of the Bible as it was then known, graduating in 1968. She finished her education at Southern Oregon College in 1972 with a Bachelor of Arts In Music cum laude and an Associate in Science - Medical and Dental Receptionist. During that time we were married on September 19, 1970.
She made 47 years as my wife and fell short by eleven days of making 70 years in this world when she passed on December 29, 2017.
Mary was a lady of many skills, all of which she used to serve others, and many of them were self taught. I first became acquainted with some of those skills when she not only made her wedding gown, but also the bridesmaids' dresses, as well as the jackets that I and my groomsmen wore at our wedding.
Later as various friends and relatives got older or married she made and decorated many amazing birthday, wedding, and anniversary cakes.
She produced many visual aides for music used in Child Evangelism Fellowships' various programs and was a helper or teacher for them for many years and she taught Sunday School at various churches we attended over the years.
Mary was a good receptionist/secretary and bookkeeper and served more than one local business in those capacities.
She was the secretary for many organizations of which I was a part, using her 'greg hand' and 'brief hand' skills to good advantage. She was an excellent typist and a wonderful proofreader for grammar, spelling, and punctuation in her capacity as home schooling mom, as well as doing that for a weekly newspaper that we attempted to produce.
As her music degree would indicate, Mary was deeply in love with music. An accomplished pianist, she also played the accordion and ukulele, and started to teach herself to play the guitar. In recent years she joined a bell choir, the one with us tonight. She didn't want to see the next generation short on musical abilities, so she taught many piano students for many years. She was equally at home directing a large choir, which she did at New Hope Christian School after her stint at Multnomah. Over the years, Mary and I were part of singing groups, typically acapella quartets.
She was never idle. When we were driving somewhere or sitting in a meeting that didn't require her constant attention, she would be knitting or crocheting something almost nonstop. This of course made it difficult to find pictures of her alone doing nothing!
Mary was truly a 'Proverbs 31 woman' and her absence is felt on many fronts by many people in many walks of life. More important than all her abilities and accomplishments in this life was the fact that even as a child she was ready to meet our Maker, whom she knew well as Lord and Saviour.
She wants to see all of you in Heaven some day.

The above was all that would fit in the handout and was very incomplete as to her abilities and accomplishments. She was a good barber - I had not more than eight trips to a regular barber in our forty-seven years - and she cut hair for friends, mere acquaintances, and other family members. She loved to garden organically. She understood food preservation and did canning and drying of food. She was a good cook. She was a gracious host. (Together we took in many who needed a place to stay, some of them for over six months.) She was a mentor to younger women. She was equally at home climbing Mt McLaughlin, or hiking the Rogue River Trail or the Trinity Alps. She took two groups of girls on bike hikes that went from our home on New Hope Road to the Jacksonville Museum and the Kerbyville Museum. She home-schooled our children from day one and tutored other students. She painted pictures and painted houses. There is no end to what she could and would do if she saw the need. She received some of her early education in two boarding schools in Africa, one in the Belgian Congo and the other in Ethiopia. She spent a number of summers in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan where her parents were missionaries. She was a 'prayer warrior' and she understood deep theology. She knew, as I hope you do, that we get to heaven solely by faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ - his blood shed on the cross for our sins. There are other things I'm leaving out because it hurts to try and remember them. wedding dresses for older women