Gloria Wilson Duffell Funeral

Gloria Wilson Duffell

Passed: 01/22/2025

Funeral: 01/27/2205

Location: Snow’s Chapel, Mercer University Drive, Macon

Interment: Riverside Cemetery, Macon

Sisters: Louise Zihlmann, Clara Bramlett (Bill)

Grandchildren: Chander Nunnemaker, Miranda Nunnemaker

Great-grandson: Fletcher Nunnemaker

Order of Service

Welcome

Scripture - Genesis 1:26-28, 31.

Prayer

Song - Blessed Assurance

Eulogy

Song - Lead Me Home - Jaime Johnson

Prayer

Graveside

Scripture: Joshua 3:1, Revelation 22:1-5

I would like to welcome you to the celebration of Mrs. Gloria Wilson Duffell’s life.

It has been a long time since many of us have seen Ms. Gloria.

She moved to her sister’s house shortly after Wendy passed in 2018

And most recently lived in the Memory Care Unit of the Sunrise at Webb Gin assisted living facility.

So much has happened in life since she moved.

Covid mainly, right?

Covid changed the world and so reordered the way that we think that lots of things

And people kind of disappeared from view.

And yet, whenever I said Ms. Gloria had passed away, people would say, “Do I know her?’

I would show them her picture and they would go, “Oh yeah, I remember her.”

“She was a really sweet person.”

We have gathered here today to remember this really sweet person.

We have come to share memories

And to love and support to one another.

For our sister has gone home but we are still here.

And we’ve got to deal with it.

As I thought of Ms. Gloria, one very special section of the Bible kept coming to mind.

So I want to read that to you and we’ll explore what it means together in just a few minutes.

Hear now the word of the Lord from Genesis 1:26-28 and verse 31.

Genesis 1:26–28 ESV

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Genesis 1:31 ESV

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Would you pray with me?

Father, the circle of this family has gotten smaller and smaller.

Slowly but surely, people that were so very important to Louise and Clara, and Austin, Chandler and Miranda

Have gone to be with you and it’s hard Lord.

We know very well your word tells us to be absent from the body is to be present with you

And we are very grateful for that.

But Lord, when they are present with you, they aren’t present with us anymore.

I know Ms. Gloria hasn’t really been with us over the last couple of years.

The reality of living in a sinful world slowly stole Gloria’s mind from her.

Her family hurt to see her that way.

But Lord with her passing, a flood gate of memories have come

Memories of good times, when we were young and more carefree

And Lord, we miss those times

And that makes us miss Gloria all the more.

Lord Jesus, you told us you would send us another comforter to be with us forever.

We are counting on you to do that today.

Remind us of the good times and slowly erode the memories of the hard times.

And cause us to leave this place today with a smile on our lips

And a song in our hearts.

Only you can do that for us Lord Jesus.

And so we ask you to do that, in Jesus’ name. Amen

Blessed Assurance

October 10, 1940 was a hard day in the life of the world.

The Battle of Britain was raging.

Tired and weary Londoners hated to see the sun go down in the evening.

Just after dark, they would hear the roar of airplane engines

As the German Luftwaffe started their bombing runs.

On October 10th, on of London’s most cherished cathedrals

St. Paul’s was bombed.

Built in the 1600’s, a bomb pierced the roof and exploded on the high altar destroying it.

But the rest of the church remained.

All the way around the world, in Abbeville, Georgia, October 10 was a completely different type of day.

Where in England the streets were filled with death and destruction

Somewhere in Abbeville, Dorothy Wilson was giving birth to her first born child.

She was a healthy girl and Bud and Dorothy named her Gloria Faye Wilson.

And most folks called her Gloria Faye.

She was the first of five - Gloria, Louise, Betty, Clara and Tommy was in there somewhere.

Bud and Dorothy were farmers.

They had a vegetable patch like most folks did in the country.

Gloria grew up picking peas and corn and butter beans

Clara said they picked so much that they filled a freezer every year the size of a casket.

And they also raised cotton.

I don’t know what age Gloria Faye was when Bud decided she was old enough to pick cotton but she was young.

All I can think about is the scene from Gone with the Wind when Scarlett picked cotton and it kept cutting her fingers.

If you remember, it was Scarlett’s hands that gave her plight away to Rhett Butler.

Hands that did the same kind of work that Ms. Gloria did as a little girl in Abbeville, Georgia.

But you know, I don’t think Gloria would count herself abused.

They didn’t want for anything because basically, they didn’t know there was anything to want.

Their world was tied to the best things.

In their mom and dad

In each other

And in their friends.

One of their favorite things was what they did at Christmas.

All of the family would get together in Bud and Dorothy’s 6 room house

Everyone would come and bring their kids.

They would take a large wash pot and get a fire going under it

Then they would take a fresh ham and boil that bad boy in that pot.

When it was done, they’d slice it up

They’d get some white bread and slather it with mayonnaise

They’d put a few pieces of well placed lettuce on top

Sprinkle on the salt and pepper and eat like kings.

I wonder how many people would hear that story and say, “Oh those poor people”

But they weren’t poor

They were living like kings enjoying the bounty of God’s good earth.

I guess perspective is everything

But sounds to me like Gloria Faye and her family were living like kings.

Gloria grew up and got married

But that marriage didn’t turn out well.

After 12 difficult years, they divorced.

Gloria was working as a technician with the Medical Center of Central Georgia when she met the love of her life, Dr. Richard Duffell.

I discovered as I poked around on the internet that Dr. Duffell was 27 years older than Gloria.

I guess Gloria was his trophy wife!

He practiced his craft at the Duffell Animal Hospital on Broadway in Macon for 59 years.

His obituary said he worked with show horses and circus animals among other things

And that suited Gloria Faye just fine.

Gloria left the Medical Center and helped in his clinic

And that’s where her love for animals blossomed.

I remember that I had not been at First Baptist too terribly long when Stanley Jones and I went to see Gloria.

He told me that Gloria had had some hard times, but he didn’t elaborate.

She was out getting the mail when we drove by and she invited us in.

But before we could go in, she had to corral the dogs and lock them up so we could visit.

I mentioned this to Bill Goodman because I told him that I had this vague memory and I wanted to make sure it was a good memory and not something to be avoided.

And Bill said, “Oh no! Gloria Faye loved animals and never met a stray dog that she didn’t want to keep and take care of.”

In fact, her neighbor's little dog would come over over day to visit and Gloria would put it in the pen with her little dog

So they wouldn’t be lonely.

Before they went in for the night, she’d let the neighbor’s dog out and it would dutifully go on home.

Only to come back the next day.

And I can see why.

Miranda and Chandler told me that one weekend one of the sisters and her husband came to visit and Gloria Faye’s truck wouldn’t run

So they took her to the grocery story.

They said she bought all kinds of roast and steaks and her sister said, “Who in the world is all of that food for?”

And Gloria replied, “Oh, this is for Wendy and the kids.”

She must have named her dogs Wendy and the kids because that’s who all of that food was for.

She loved her animals.

Don’t be mistaken though, she made sure Wendy and the kids were fed.

They said she loved making them their favorite things

Especially waffles and cheese grits for breakfast.

It’s hard to image the woman I knew being as active as she and Richard were.

They were members of the Skeet Club of Middle Georgia.

Guess Gloria Faye was a bit of a marksman.

They were members of the Motor Boat Club of Macon

And they owned a Grady-White motor boat - look it up, I did - I was almost jealous

It was a 30 footer with a full cabin that they took up the intracostal waterway

Visiting all of the small towns and loving the scenery of the Georgia, North and South Carolina and Virginia coast lines.

Can you see Gloria Faye standing in the bow of their boat with her hair blowing and smiling from ear to ear?

She even took a turn teaching Chandler how to play golf.

She was teaching him to swing when something didn’t happen just right and he whacked Gloria with the club.

After making sure he hadn’t killed his grandma, Gloria and Chandler sat on the ground and busted out laughing.

I do wonder though if Chandler ever learned to play golf?

I don’t know where Gloria met Jesus.

I don’t know where she was baptized.

I do know that she moved her letter to the First Baptist Church of Gray the week after Easter in April 6, 1997.

Dr. Duffell died only five years later.

And Gloria started taking care of people and people started taking care of Gloria.

Gloria’s mom moved in with her.

Gloria was also helping with Wendy who was having seizures

And you can’t drive when you have seizures

So Gloria drove her where she needed to go.

It was about then that the sisters started noticing things about Gloria and realized she needed some help.

So the family that had been so close when they were young

Stayed close when they were older.

Louise and Clara alternated weekends in Gray.

They had a helper during the week.

Eventually Dorothy passed.

And then out of no where, Wendy passed.

I went to the house that day and it was pretty evident that Ms. Gloria was starting to have some memory issues.

She told me she would be going to live with one of her sisters

And she did until her mind just slipped too far.

She went to assisted living where the staff fell in love with their Glo-Glo.

Until last week when Jesus sent His angel to her and told her it was time to go.

I read the scripture from Genesis early on.

Maybe you don’t understand why I chose that passage and maybe you do,

But I chose it because of the word “dominion.”

Genesis 1:28 “And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””

In our world, the word dominion reminds us of the word “dominate.”

If you dominate something, you rule over it with an iron fist, right?

Dominate means you overpower something

It’s your way or the high way and lots of people think that way.

But that’s not how God’s dominion works.

If Jesus is the exact representation of God, just as the Bible says

And Jesus has dominion over everything, just as the Bible says

Then we should be able to look at Jesus and understand what dominion looks like, shouldn’t we?

That makes logical sense.

So when we hear Jesus tell a story about a brown skinned guy caring for an olive skinned guy, what does that say about dominion?

And when we hear Jesus telling John to take care of Jesus’ mother when Jesus was crucified, what does that say about dominion?

When Jesus told the story about the sheep on His right and the goats on His left

And He told the good guys that the reason they were good guys was because they fed the hungry

And gave drink to the thirsty

They welcomed in strangers, gave clothes to the needy, visited the sick and even visited folks in prison.

When we see the Person who was the exact representation of God talking like that, what does that say about dominion?

What is dominion when Gloria Faye picked peas and corn and butter beans so her family could have food to eat?

Was it dominion when Gloria Faye hoed the weeds out of the cotton and picked that cotton so the family would have money to live?

Was it dominion when Gloria Faye cared for her failing mother

And cared for her sick daughter

And make sure her grandchildren had their favorite foods

And when she fed the neighbor’s dog and put him in the pen with her dog so they wouldn’t be lonely.

Was all of that dominion?

You know what I think?

I think dominion is a fancy word for caring.

The Lord told His people to care for one another

And care for the creatures and the beasts and the fish and the birds

“And every living creature.”

And if you care for those things, then you have to care for the land they live on

Because it’s the grass and grain and water that keep them alive.

Dominion means we care like Jesus cared.

And I think Gloria Faye did that, don’t you?

Jesus said in Matthew 25:31-34

Matthew 25:31–34 ESV

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

I believe Gloria Faye heard King Jesus say those very words to her.

She knew Jesus was her Savior.

It’s apparent to me that she learned Godly dominion from Jesus

So she did what He said and she blessed her family.

And her family blessed her.

You don’t have to be a missionary to the deepest, darkest parts of Africa to be God’s child.

Sometimes all you have to be is an outdoor loving

Antique gathering

Dog and cat loving

Caring daughter and mother and grandmother

Who loves Jesus and wants to follow Him as best as possible.

That’s really all it takes.

I sure hope you all know that.

Lead Me Home - Jamie Johnson

Let us pray:

Father,

Thank you so much for showing us what it means to follow you.

Thank you for those who did their best, like Ms. Gloria

Who have lived as examples for us.

We know things weren’t always easy or good

Or that they weren’t always perfect

But they always wanted to do what was right by you

So they tried, just like Gloria did.

Thank you for a family that loved one another

And did so much to care for each other.

Thank you for loving us so much that you sent Jesus to die for our sins and be raised to new life

So Ms. Gloria and we can live with you forever.

And Lord, now that Ms. Gloria is with you

Please send someone else to care for the animals

I’m sure they miss her.

In Jesus’ name.

Amen

Graveside

In the hard times in Ms. Gloria’s life, I wonder if there were times that she felt like the Israelites standing on the shore of the wilderness

Gazing into the promised land, wishing, wishing that they were there?

Joshua 3:1 ESV

And they came to the Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over.

They wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.

It was hard and so many thing happened that they never dreamed would happen to them

And yet they did

And now here they are, standing on the east bank of the Jordan River wondering what it will be like to finally be home.

Maybe you’ve felt that way once or twice in your life.

I’m sure Gloria had to

Enough hard times beat you down and there’s no doubt that you day dream of good times

Of living in the promised land where times aren’t so hard.

A long time ago, somewhere that I have no clue of

Gloria Wilson one day to be Gloria Duffell heard someone tell the story of Jesus

And Jesus resurrected her dead soul and He caused her to hear the truth.

She realized she was a sinner and it broke her heart.

She wanted to be good and in an instant she realized she could never be as good as she’d like to be.

That’s when Jesus spoke to her heart and said, “Gloria - come follow me and I’ll show you what good really looks like.”

So she followed Jesus.

And at times it was glorious - swinging golf clubs with Chandler, fresh ham sandwiches with the family

Nights on the boat gently swaying with the waves with Richard.

Some times it was horrific.

No one dreams of a divorce.

No one ever wants to bury their child.

But always she followed.

Then last Wednesday night

When her earthly eyes were unseeing

And her earthly mind was not recognizing

Jesus spoke to her heart again.

An angel came to her side and took her by the hand

And he carried Gloria to see Jesus.

Jesus told Gloria to rest - that there’s still a little more of the story to be written

And He reminded her how it will all end.

Revelation 22:1–5 ESV

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

They will reign

They will have dominion

They will care for one another better than they have ever cared, forever.

That’s a good ending.

I hope it will be your ending as well.

Let us pray:

Holy Father, We commend into thy hands of mercy the soul of this our sister departed, Gloria Faye.

And her body we commit to the earth, beseeching your infinite goodness, to give us grace to live in your fear and love and to die in your favor

So that when the judgement shall come which you have committed to your well-beloved son,

Both this our sister, and we, may be found acceptable in your sight

And that we receive that blessing, which your well-beloved son shall then pronounce to all that love and fear you, saying

Come you blessed children of my Father: Receive the kingdom prepared for you before the beginning of the world.

Grant this merciful father for the honor of Jesus Christ, our only Savior, Mediator, our Advocate and our Friend.

[Ephesians 3:20-21 NASB] 20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.