Jean Louden - 1/5/26

We gather this morning to mourn the passing of Jean Louden, though at 102 years old, we don’t really mourn for her loss, because she lived a wonderfully full life. But, we do mourn for our loss today. Jean was ready for the end of this life and ready to begin the life that is to come. But the truth remains that we continue to feel a significant sense of loss, a hole in our lives that is left by her absence. Our hope today is not so much to fixate on her death, but to celebrate her life. But as we do so today, we desire the Lord’s strength, so will you pray with me to that end?

Our Heavenly Father, today we feel the sting of loss acutely. We know that Jean was ready for this day and as she declined over the last year, we were ready for her suffering to end. But we still ache for her loss. We thank you for the confidence that she has lost nothing, but we ask for your strength as we learn how to carry on without her. Grant this family and these friends your grace and peace today, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Jean Louden was born the fourth of nine children May 26, 1923 in LaHarpe, the daughter of Lewis “Skimmer” and Eva (Laybourne) Link. She was raised on a farm southeast of LaHarpe and graduated from LaHarpe High School. Following high school, she attended nursing school in Burlington, Iowa, becoming a registered nurse. During her schooling, she completed her residency at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. On January 15, 1945 she married Harry Franklin Louden in LaHarpe. Frank was enlisted in the Navy allowing the couple to honeymoon in San Diego. He preceded her in death on October 20, 1992.

Following her nursing school, she returned to LaHarpe for a 30 year career under Dr. Mueller; all while raising her family and being a beloved farm wife. Following their retirement in 1989, the couple relocated from their farm into LaHarpe.

Jean was a member of the LaHarpe Union Church and local women’s organizations. She was an avid reader and enjoyed watching the Chicago Cubs.

She passed away Tuesday, December 30, 2025 at the Southeast Iowa Regional Hospice House in West Burlington, Iowa at the age of 102.

Survivors include four children: Jim (Dee) Louden of Middleburg, Florida, Richard (Sandy) Louden of Camp Point, Illinois; one daughter: Janice Louden of Palm Springs, California, Harry (Sherry Carpenter) Louden of LaHarpe; seven grandchildren: Abby (Chris) Johns of Cleveland, Texas, Adrienne (Brandon Bennett) Louden of Burlington, Abe (Lyndsay Fraser) Louden of Sara Toga Springs, Utah, Alyse (JJ Myers) Louden of Burlington, Iowa, Emily Louden of Ft. Madison, Katie Nelson of Overland Park, Kansas, Erin (Josiah) Neff of LaHarpe; 13 great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.

Besides her husband, she was preceded in death by one daughter: Beth Ann Nelson, one step-grandson: Jeff Land and 8 siblings: Louise Boren, Bob Link, Luella Bowen, Donald “Soup” Link, Dorothy Kern, Wendell Link, Wayne Link and Leah Belle Hicks.

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As I’ve talked to various people over the last several days, I feel like I’ve gained a better picture of who Jean Louden was. While I knew her my whole life, I realize I only ever really knew her as an old woman, and for many of those years, I was too young to pay much attention to exactly the kind of woman she was. In many ways, the last week has been fun to be able to see Jean through the eyes of others.

As I talked to many of you, there were several things that were consistent themes: she was small but mighty, she was kind and caring, she was proud of the things she had worked for, and she loved her family deeply.

Jean grew up on a dairy farm, and from an early age, had to learn to milk cows. She didn’t really care for it, but in doing so, she learned the value of hard work and had a good sense of what it meant to be part of a farming family. She went to nursing school right out of high school and became a registered nurse. Part of her training included a residency at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago. She would often talk about how that was an eye-opening experience, especially her rotation in the psych ward! But she was proud of what she had accomplished and enjoyed being a nurse for many years.

When she and Frank got married, they began building their family on the farm together. Frank dabbled in many things, including in hogs for a time. While Jean was a farm girl, her experience was with cattle, not hogs, and so she was not near the help that she or her husband hoped she would be. Frank eventually gave up the hogs when he discovered that all his hard work really wasn’t making him any money.

I’m told that at one point he floated the idea of getting a milk cow to Jean. She proceeded to warn him that a milk cow needed to be milked several times a day, and he’d need to teach the kids to do it and enlist the help of others as well, because she didn’t know how. Of course, Jean did know how, as she had grown up milking cows—but had no desire to start doing it again as an adult!

Though there were always animals around, since they lived on a farm, Jean was not really a person who was into pets. While the family did occasionally have some pets, they didn’t live in the house. And in her later years, Jean simply had no interest in having any sort of indoor pets.

But while all the chaos of the farm was going on, Jean was also working as a nurse. She would often work nights at the hospital in La Harpe, for many years as Dr. BI Mueller’s personal nurse. She had many fond memories of her time working with Doc at the hospital. Because of the way hospitals were back then, she got to do a bit of everything. She lost count of how many babies she had helped to deliver, and she prided herself on being right by Doc Mueller’s side in whatever he needed to do.

I’m told there was one night that a patient came in and needed his leg amputated. As always, Jean was there assisting as the doctor carefully did the surgery. After successfully removing the leg, he handed it to Jean and said, “Why don’t you get rid of this now?” while he began stitching up what was left of the leg. It was really a different time!

The fact that Jean worked nights as a nurse did not diminish her responsibilities as a wife and mother though. Most nights, Jean would feed everyone and get the kids ready for bed, then go to work. When she’d come home in the morning, she’d get everyone ready for the day and feed everyone again. She would cook all the meals for the family, and often for their farmhands as well. Somewhere in there, I assume she also got some sleep!

Jean was a wonderful cook, and she cooked all the time. She was one of the few people who actually wore out stoves! She used her stove so much that she wore clean through the enamel in several places. She had also worn through the linoleum in front of the stove from all the time she spent there. I’m told that since her husband was a meat and potatoes guy, she made meat and potatoes every single day in some form or another. She was always peeling potatoes! Her potato salad was legendary, and she would also often make mashed or baked potatoes for dinner as well. I believe Jean viewed her cooking as a way of caring for those around her.

The family dynamic was always interesting growing up, because the kids were so spread out. Jim and Janice were born 13 months apart from each other. Several years later, Richard and Beth came along, and then Harry came along 19 years after Jim was born! She spent the better part of 40 years raising children at home! Having the children so spread out created all sorts of challenges, but it also provided some unique opportunities for blessings, as many of the older kids got to have fun playing with and helping to raise the younger ones.

When the grandchildren started coming along, Jean was thrilled. She always wanted to make sure they felt loved and cared for. When they were tweens and teens, Jean would always get Bath and Body Works or Avon scents for the girls, and would get Abraham and Josiah Brut colognes. The kids said that she rarely got the scents exactly right, but they would happily exchange them amongst themselves. They saw the love behind their grandma’s gifts (and maybe her recognition that they were all teenagers, and could use some help in the odor department!)

Christmas Eve was always family time at Grandma Jean’s. The family would enjoy Beth’s vegetable beef soup and Grandma’s oyster stew. True to form, Jean always had tons of goodies on plates all around the house. She also made her famous Christmas Jell-o salad, which was three layers of red, white, and green. It is still a fond memory to this day.

Another fond memory the grandkids all had was the cookie jar that sat on top of the fridge. That cookie jar lived on top of the fridge out at the farm, and made the move with Jean into town as well. The grandkids all remembered watching the grown-ups come in and stick their hands in when they arrived. Usually there were store-bought cookies, but sometimes there were homemade ones as well. They all looked forward to the day when they were tall enough to reach the cookie jar themselves. Adrienne remarked that her favorite days were when she reached in and found Grandma’s peanut butter blossoms!

For as tough and hard-working as Jean was, she was also wonderfully understanding and caring. She was not one to hold a grudge, and she was wonderfully pragmatic. Even if things weren’t the way she might have wanted, she was usually able to understand the reasons why they were as they were. When Jim and Dee decided to move to Florida, they were a little concerned about telling Jean. I’m told they sat down with her and then began to debate with each other over who was going to break her the news. They were a little afraid of how to tell her they were going to leave. Jean put a stop to that right away, as she looked them in the eyes and told them, “I never want you to be afraid to tell me anything!” Dee said that made the conversation a lot easier to have.

Not everything was easy for Jean, however. She faced the prospect of watching the husband she loved slowly die, caring for him as best she could. I’m sure she felt helpless, as someone who had spent all her life fixing others, unable to fix the one she loved the most. She went through the same thing when Beth got sick. It was hard for her to watch her daughter slowly slip away. But Jean refused to allow these things to break her. She continued to keep doing the things she knew were right, and she refused to wallow in self-pity. She showed remarkable strength, even in the midst of incredible heartache.

Though Jean was sweet and kind, she was also ornery. She was quick-witted and was always willing to give you a hard time. Rich and Sandy both shared many times of sparring with her when she was in the nursing home. For whatever reason, Jean had a block on Sandy’s name, and couldn’t remember it. She kept calling her Opal! When Sandy would remind her that her name wasn’t Opal, Jean always laughed and said, “I don’t even know where that comes from, as I don’t even know an Opal!” Sandy would tease her back by calling her Henrietta. I think Jean loved every minute of it.

When she moved to Stronghurst, she enjoyed many simple pleasures. She loved when Sherry would come and do her hair and her nails, and enjoyed going for drives with Harry. They laughed that she could barely see out the window, but she loved getting to visit the old farmhouses and see the countryside again.

Even as her mind began to decline in the last year or so, she continued to have an amazing memory for the early years. She remembered all her siblings and their birthdays. She was the only one remaining of the nine children, but she still loved her siblings and their families dearly.

And she wanted each of her own children and grandchildren to know how much she loved them. Any time any of them would visit, and would tell her, “I love you”, she would respond sweetly with, “I love you too, honey!” I believe that Jean’s family was her greatest joy, and she wanted you to see how much she loved each of you and cared for you as well.

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I know earlier this year when I stopped in to visit Jean in Stronghurst, I was surprised when she knew who I was. She didn’t recognize me at first (as she hadn’t seen me for many years), but once she realized who I was, we had a wonderful time catching up. It was like we were able to pick up right where we had left off. But as we talked, one thing became apparent—Jean was tired. She was ready to be at home with her Lord. She didn’t know how much longer she had on this earth, but she was ready for whenever her time was up.

As I thought about a verse that might be fitting for Jean, my mind immediately went to the book of 2 Timothy, as the Apostle Paul reflected on the end of his own life.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. 8 And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:7-8, NLT)

I think Jean could have said these words as well. She had worked hard throughout her entire life, and she was ready for her time of rest. I believe Jean had faith in Jesus, and was looking forward to the day when she would be at home with Him. Personally, I find this a great comfort, as it means that Jean has not simply ceased to exist, but that she is now living life as it was meant to be lived all along. She has been delivered from the pains and frailties of this life and is now living at peace with her Lord.

But any time we talk about life beyond the grave, I fear that people get the wrong idea. Many people believe that everyone goes to Heaven when they die. They assume that because God is loving, that is what happens to us all. But there is a problem we often overlook—the problem of sin.

God has designed our world to function in a certain way, including giving us laws and instructions to follow. But every one of us has broken those laws. We have all chosen to rebel against God’s design in favor of going our own way. God is good and loving, but He is also just. A good judge cannot simply overlook the crimes of the people who come before him. He must mete out justice appropriately. God cannot simply overlook our sin, our rebellion demands justice.

Thankfully, God also provided a means for that justice to be carried out and for us to still be forgiven. Jesus came to earth as human being to live the perfect life we could not and then offer himself as a perfect sacrifice, taking our sin upon himself. But as Paul alluded to in the passage I read earlier, that hope, that forgiveness, is only available to those who embrace the gift Jesus offers and choose to follow Him with their lives.

I believe that Jean Louden had done that. And so today, I believe that Jean is living a life free from the things that had plagued her for so long. Today she is at peace.

But I would be remiss if I didn’t draw your attention to the elephant in the room today. Death is something each of us must ultimately face. We must each wrestle with the reality of our own mortality. We must each decide what we will do with Jesus: will we recognize and embrace His sacrifice, or will we ignore Him? Many imagine they can put this decision off until sometime later, but if there is something most of us have learned, it is that not everyone lives to be 102. We do not know how long we have left in this life. So we would be wise to deal with the questions of faith now, because when we sit in a funeral home, we are reminded that these questions are not merely theoretical, they are immensely practical. We will each face death someday, and we don’t know when that day will be. So we should make sure we’re ready.

My hope is that you will find comfort in the reality of life beyond the grave. I find great comfort knowing that Jean’s story has not ended. One chapter has ended and a new one has begun. In the times when you feel the pain of loss, may you find comfort in knowing that she has lost nothing, but gained everything.

As we conclude, I want to draw some lessons from the life of Jean Louden that I think she would want us to learn.

1. Hard work is nothing to be afraid of. When you work hard, you can be proud of what you accomplished, so don’t be afraid of tackling a big job or task, because it is often worth it in the end.

2. While work is important, family is even more important. Make time for the people who matter to you, find ways to show they are important to you, and tell them that often.

3. It is often the heart behind a gift that matters more than the gift itself. I don’t know if anyone actually wears Brut cologne (no offense if you do!), but the simple act of showing someone you thought about them often means far more than the gift itself.

4. Life isn’t always easy. There are things that hurt, things that are hard to swallow, realities that are difficult to understand. But in those moments, we face a choice. We can throw up our hands in despair, or we can keep moving forward, doing what we know is right. Jean chose to keep moving forward, even when the curve balls of life were thrown her way. I suggest we can follow her example.

5. Faith in Jesus is not merely a theoretical issue, but ultimately is immensely practical. Faith in Christ offers answers to many of the challenges of life, and at the end of life, it is something we must each decide for ourselves.

6. Life’s too short (even if you live to be 102) to hold grudges or stay angry. Many people are robbed of the joy of life because they continue to nurse the hurts of the past. Jean understood the value of letting things go and moving forward. We would be wise to do the same.

Will you pray with me?

Our Heavenly Father, we come today with a mix of emotions. On one hand, we are grateful that Jean has been delivered from her suffering. We know she has been ready to go home and be with you for some time now, and so we thank you that she has now been delivered from the frailties of this life. But we also acutely feel the sting of loss. There will be many times over the days and weeks to come when that pain will show up in unexpected ways. When that comes, please grant your comfort and strength. Help this family as they endeavor to move forward together in the days and months to come. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.