Bernice Otto

A storm came through last night with a bright flash of lightning and a huge BOOM! Right after that the heavens opened with heavy rain pounding on the roof. The golf cart had been left in front of the apartment door and I got all wet running outside to move it into the barn. It wasn't long after getting soaked that I decided to forget the foal watch and head home. By the time I reached the house, both dogs wanted out and came back with so much mud on their paws it took a few minutes cleaning them before falling into my own soft comfortable bed for the rest of the short night.
Word came that Bernice Otto died this morning. Bernice worked for my uncle for years, then when she retired started donating her time with me at Berean Prison Ministry. How that came about was a funny story. One day after 3 hours of just opening mail I came upstairs, saw dad and told him, "I must have help, this is just too much for one person to handle!" He told me Bernice had just retired and he would call her to see if she would like to volunteer for a few hours a week. I went back downstairs to work, came up for lunch and there was Bernice. Of course I greeted her with, "how wonderful, you came!" "Come on down and I'll show you what we are doing." Bernice acted kind of confused but came willingly. I mentioned how thankful I was that she would give up some of her time and how we would work Tuesdays and Thursdays. She said, "well I'll give you this afternoon and then see." That one afternoon turned into 8 years of hard labor. And now for the kicker of the story, Dad didn't get a chance to call her, she had just come in from seeing someone off to the airport and stopped in to say hello to everyone not knowing she was going to get roped into working.
Bernice holds a very special place in my heart.