Barbara Ann Brewer Funeral

Barbara Ann Brewer

Passed: Thursday, March 20, 2025

Funeral: Tuesday, March 25, 2025

Location: Snow’s at Macon Memorial Chapel

Husband: Jimmy Brewer

Sons: Jay (Heather) Brewer, Benjy (Jeanie) Brewer

Grands: Cole Brewer and Caleb Brewer

Sister: Rebecca Balkcom

Brothers: Richard Bates and Philip Bates

Order:

Family Enters - “Angel” - Sarah McLachlan

Welcome / Scripture / Prayer - Randy Darnell

Proverbs 1:8-9;

Isaiah 66:12-14;

Song: “Scars in Heaven” - Casting Crowns

Eulogy - Randy Darnell

Prayer - Randy Darnell

Welcome

I’d like to welcome you to the celebration of life of Mrs. Barbara Ann Brewer.

Ms. Barbara was born on Sunday, May 3, 1953.

It was such a different world when she was born.

Jet airplanes did not streak across the sky

Manned spaceflight was still only in science fiction movies

And you almost had to take out a loan to make a long distance phone call.

But on that particular Sunday, a little baby girl named Barbara was born in Lagrange, Georgia.

She would grow up and have her a little family that she loved and adored

And who loved and adored her.

We’ve come today to remember Barbara, to give comfort to her family and to thank Almighty God for lending her to us for a season.

I’d like to read to you two short passages of scripture.

The first is Proverbs 1:8-9

Proverbs 1:8–9 ESV

Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.

And the second is Isaiah 66:12-13

Isaiah 66:12–13 ESV

For thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip, and bounced upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

We’ll talk a little bit more about these in just a moment.

But for right now, thank you for coming to give love and support to Jimmy and his family.

I am sure they are most grateful.

Please join me in prayer:

Father,

As we look all around ourselves outside, we see the dead of winter passing away into the green of spring.

We hear your word tell us in Genesis 8:22 “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.””

The earth you created keeps spinning.

The sun rises and the sun sets

All controlled by the power of your mighty hand.

You have given us so many things

And yet Father, we are gathered here because this time you have taken away

You have taken our mother, sister, Granny and friend home.

We were not ready for that Lord but we accept what you bring.

Who knows what things you saved Ms. Barbara from by taking her home so soon.

But Father, this is hard.

Her passing leaves a big hole that only you can fill Lord Jesus.

Please comfort Jimmy and his family.

Wash over them good memory after good memory

And fill their hearts with comfort.

Show them how to go on without her

And cause them all to know Jesus, so when their day comes, they will be presented to the Father holy and blameless

So they can live with you forever.

Please dear Lord, hear our prayers

In Jesus’ name, Amen

Song - “Scars in Heaven” - Casting Crowns

Back in the 1960’s, there was a phenomena called the drive-in movie theatre.

You would drive your car to the gate and pay them to let you in.

You’d drive around looking for just the right spot

Then you’d park your car on the slightly inclined parking place facing the giant screen in front of you

You’d take the speaker off the little pole beside your car and hook the hooks over the driver’s side window.

If you were there with the kids, you’d get them settled in and ready for the movie to start.

If you were there on a date, you’d get ready for your make out session.

And if you were there with the guys or the gals, you headed to the snack bar.

It was a summer night around 1968.

Jimmy Brewer was at the drive in.

He might have come to see the James Bond movie, You Only Live Twice

Or maybe to see Elvis Pressley and a bunch of beach babes in Clambake

Or maybe Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke.

What he hadn’t planned on that night at the Dixie Drive In was to be smitten.

It was that night that the young Jimmy first laid eyes on Barbara

And Jimmy said it was love at first sight.

The minute he saw her, he knew he was going to marry her.

Over the next three years they dated and got to know each other.

Jimmy would learn that she was born in LaGrange, Georgia.

Barbara’s dad disappeared - she never knew him.

There were a lot of kids in the family - 7 brothers and sisters total

And that was too much for mom.

So the kids were dispersed.

Barbara ended up with her Aunt Teeny and Uncle Mac McGowan.

I’m not sure if it was Teeny that said it or if it was Barbara,

But one of them said, “Everything that happened to Barbara’s mother happened so Teeny could raise Barbara”

Teeny loved her and taught her how to be a woman.

She instilled in Barbara her love of gardening

And obviously taught her how to sew and fed Barbara’s love of crafts.

So that when she met the man who was to be her husband, she’d be ready to have a family.

And meet him she did.

Jimmy said that Barbara could bring him to his knees with her love.

They were the perfect balance

Jimmy was the outgoing people person.

Barbara was the quieter one that people simply fell in love with.

On November 27, 1971 they were married.

Jimmy was drafted and after he returned from his tour of duty in Okinawa they settled down in their place on Highway 57.

I believe Benjy was born first.

Then Jay

And Barbara settled into a life of making a home for her family and filling it with love.

She loved taking care of her family.

Jay told of the time he and his friend Tim were out riding in the woods.

Their machine broke down and they pushed and pushed it through the woods to get home.

But when they got close, at the bottom of a big hill, I guess Jay and Tim got tired and called for help.

Who did Jay call?

Well, his mom of course and she came out and helped them finish pushing it all the up the hill home.

She loved to cook for them.

Everyday of course, but especially on the big holidays.

I bet right now if you thought about it, you can still smell the smells coming from her kitchen.

No one can ever cook like Mama cooks.

And at Christmas, Barbara and Jimmy started a most unusual tradition for the boys.

I’ve never heard of anyone else doing something like this.

Barbara and Jimmy had watched the 1979 movie “Scavenger Hunt” and they came up with this idea.

On Christmas, instead of the traditional 30 minutes of frenzied paper flying present unwrapping

Flying from gift to gift until it’s over.

They spent the night before planting clues all over their yard.

The boys had to go from one clue to the next

Each clue would have a present and each present growing until they finished the scavenger hunt to find their big present.

I understand there were lots of little “whisper” helps going on to make sure everything was found.

But can’t you image seeing those two boys tearing around the yard, going from bell to bell

And tree to tree, solving clues and collecting presents.

I can only imagine Barbara’s happiness watching her two boys running around in the yard

Laughing and carrying on while they hunted.

And Barbara had a way with words

Of saying something very innocently that - well - might not have come out just like she wanted it to.

Not too long ago, Jay and Jimmy where cutting a spot in the yard that had grown up a bit.

They were way down at the bottom of the hill and Jay shouted a question up to her.

“What did you say?” she said.

He repeated the question.

“What did you say?” she said again.

And Jay yelled back again.

Finally she yelled back, “You know I can’t hear you when you are talking uphill!”

I guess it’s just as hard for those words to climb the hill as it is for us to climb it.

But where Barbara was an absolutely beast was working in the yard.

Jimmy said if you worked in the yard with her, you’d best be ready for a workout.

He described her as tenacious.

She loved digging in the dirt and there was no way you could keep up with her when she got going.

She could grow anything

Taking almost twigs and rooting them, and producing another plant.

Her two favorite things in the world were flowers.

She loved growing them.

And pictures.

I understand that once they got their medicines mixed up and somehow swapped bodies.

Barbara’s head appeared on Jimmy’s body.

Jimmy’s head appeared on Barbara’s body.

You might have seen the results of that medical catastrophe in the slide reel.

But mostly they had pictures of Caleb and Cole.

Heather told me that if you needed to get Barbara a gift, you couldn’t lose with flowers to plant

Or pictures of the boys.

So Granny got lots of pictures of the boys.

And this is what is so cool to me.

Because Barbara chose to be a homemaker, she not only got to raise her two boys at home.

She got to keep Cole and Caleb when they were little.

She loved playing with them in her swimming pool and she could get Cole to do things no one else could do.

Cole, as I understand it, is a bit persnickety when it comes to vegetables

But one of his favorite things on earth is Granny’s vegetable soup.

And Caleb’s favorite thing on this earth is French Fries

And Barbara made sure that no matter what she was cooking, French Fries would be a part of it.

I know that doesn’t sound like much

But to have your grandmother have your favorite thing waiting for you every time you ate with her,

That’s her telling him she loves him.

She did another thing for them too which wasn’t such a little thing.

A number of months ago she started making quilts for the two grand boys.

Jimmy said she worked 6 to 8 hours a day on them.

And it wasn’t easy

Because at the same time, she started having fainting spells.

She could tell when they were coming and they would put her out of commission for a little bit.

But she’d always come back

And she’d get back busy again.

Until she finished them both on March 19th.

Just last week.

The day before she died.

It’s like she had a mission and she wasn’t going to be deterred from completing that mission.

It was the theme song of her life, other’s first.

Always others first.

Do you remember the verses from Proverbs we read earlier?

Proverbs 1:8–9 “Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.”

“Forsake not your mother’s teaching.”

I suspect if you thought back on it, you’d remember a lot that she’s taught you.

Like, how to be a good friend.

How to love people and care for friends.

She taught you how to go the extra mile to make something special for someone.

She taught you to love and respect the earth that the Lord gave to us.

She taught you how to love without expecting anything in return.

When Rebecca said how much Teeny loved Jimmy and how good Jimmy was for Barbara

And how Jimmy kept Barbara going,

Jimmy said, “It looked like I was helping her, but really, she was helping me.”

It sounds like she taught you how to give comfort and to receive comfort.

So what do you do now that she is gone?

That’s why I read the verses from Isaiah.

The Lord God says, “Isaiah 66:13 “As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”

As one whom His mother comforts, so I will comfort you.

The “I” there is God.

He is the one who comforts like a mother.

One of the things Jesus said that I love is when he said, Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

If anyone is heavy laden, that is you guys right now.

Your sorrow is so deep that it almost feels like you can hold it in your hand.

There is only one person in the world who can give you rest from that, and that is Jesus.

Jesus knows grief.

Jesus’ grief was deep.

When He was dying on the cross, He yelled, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

That was the moment that every sin from every one who would ever be saved was poured out on Jesus.

Every thing that you and I have done that God said don’t do

And Good Lord have mercy, we’ve done too many to count.

In that moment, every one of those things was poured out on a man who never did a single thing wrong.

Jesus was the only man that could make that claim - he lived a perfect life.

And when all of that rebellion was poured out on Jesus

He felt like the Father that had sent comfort to Him all of His life was gone.

Just like you feel right now.

Jesus died feeling that way.

It was on Friday that He died.

They buried Him that day.

He stayed buried the next day.

Then sometime on the morning of the third day, God the Father gave Jesus new life.

His Father comforted Him and me and you.

God the Father took His Son Jesus out of that grave to prove His power to us.

So that anyone who believes - that means hears that Jesus offers us forgiveness of sins and so we follow Him.

If we will do that, He will give us a new life starting right this minute.

That’s some crazy comfort there.

This dumb old man standing right here, the Lord made brand new.

And He will make you brand new too.

I believe Barbara would like that - to know that her family and friends that she loved so dearly

Would live forever with God and find rest for their souls.

To find comfort with the only One who can comfort us forever.

Let us pray,

Dear Lord,

Thank you so much for lending us Barbara for these 72 years.

Thank you that Jimmy and Barbara meant it when they vowed almost 54 years ago to love each other until death do us part.

And Lord, you know they kept that vow that they made before you that day.

Thank you Jesus for the lessons she taught

And the food that she cooked

And the blankets she made

And the way she so easily loved her family and friends.

And Lord, most of all, we thank you for the hope of eternal life

Which belongs to anyone who calls on your name to be saved.

Please Lord, comfort this family with your love.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Graveside

You have painted a beautiful picture of Barbara for me.

I can hear the love you all shared in the stories you told.

I could see in my mind’s eyes, all of you gathered at the table, or out the yard planting flowers, or splashing around in the swimming pool.

I pray for you all that the joy I hear from you is truly the joy you feel.

Barbara was obviously a special woman who leaves behind a wonderful legacy.

Have you thought about this?

You told me she made and sold dolls.

People who don’t know her have her dolls in their houses right now.

They have no clue who she is, and they have no clue that she has passed.

But they know that someone very special created something beautiful that gives their children and them, joy.

How much joy did Barbara bring to people that she didn’t know, and they didn’t know her?

But they could see the result of her labor of love.

Think about that.

Today, someone some where may be picking up one of her dolls

They will stop and look at it and think how pretty it is and how it fits in so well with their family.

And Barbara will have touched one more life.

I like that.

Barbara was a woman who very obviously knew love and knew how to give love.

And that’s a real good thing.

Some people get all bent out of shape when someone talks about Jesus.

They misquote him and make him into something he wasn’t.

But if you really listen to his words, you’ll understand.

One of his followers named John wrote about Jesus and he quoted Jesus as saying this:

John 15:17 CSB - “This is what I command you: Love one another.”

What do you bet Barbara would say that to you right now?

Ya’ll love one another.

I might not be right there, but ya’ll be kind to one another and make each other feel loved.

Oh, and don’t let my yard turn to weeds.

And listen to the preacher - trust in Jesus.

He is the way and what Barbara had heard as a little girl, she understands first hand right now.

Pray with me:

Holy Father,

We commend into thy hands of mercy the soul of this our sister departed, Barbara.

This sweet wife, this sweet mother, this sweet friend.

Father, we commit her body 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 ESV

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.