| Honored by: | Ward Crawley |
| Brick location: | G:10 map |
In the Bible the book of Ruth is named after a young woman of Moab, the great-grandmother of David and an ancestress of Jesus. The book is one of the only two in the Bible bearing the name of a woman. Ruth is remembered for her unswerving and selfless devotion.
Ruth Marie Wesbrook was born on June 21, 1938 to Elsie and Harry Wesbrook in St. Charles, Missouri. She was the second youngest in a poor family of six children. When Ruth was five years old, the family moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where her father worked for the railroad. Her life was difficult, as her father died when she was 19. She married shortly thereafter and became the mother of Dianne Marie and John "Pat" Patrick Davis. Again she overcame difficulty as Dianne and Pat's father left them.
Ruth worked as a single mother at Rockwell-Collins in Cedar Rapids until she met Lloyd Hugh Crawley. They were married on August 6, 1970. Lloyd had a baby boy, Timothy Ford, affectionately named Skip and a girl named Patricia Caye. Ruth took them as her own as she forged together a new family. After being married one and a half years, Ruth gave birth to a son named Ward Allen.
The family flourished under Ruth's know-how and love, but as any mother knows raising five children is not always an easy task. Ruth did so with a lot of patience and love. She raised all five of her children to adulthood, helping them through the bad times and celebrating with them the good times.
In 1991, Ruth and her family discovered that she had a cancerous tumor on her tongue. It was removed and everyone was optimistic that the cancer was located in no other places. The next year a lump was discovered in her neck. Again Ruth underwent surgery but this time she had to go through radiation treatment. Although the radiation kept her from being able to speak for over a month, Ruth helped her children through the ordeal. If one of them would call she would emphatically tap on the phone so they would know she was there.
On May 10, 1992, Ruth was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. Weakened from the radiation, her body was unable to fight the ailment. Doctors soon told Ruth and her family that the cancer had spread to her lungs and it would only be a short while until her death. Although her life was coming to an end, Ruth continued to help her children by being strong for them. Her death on Friday, May 29, 1992 was the most terrible thing that any of her children had ever gone through. But she had prepared them to deal with the loss of the mother that they all loved so very much.
None of her children will ever forget the love that she had for them, as their love for her will never be forgotten. We love you, Mom - Dianne, Pat, Skip, Caye, and Ward.
"He who has the Son has life; He who does not have the Son of God does not have life." I John 5:12
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