Trousdale, Margaret

Age seventy-seven. June 18, 2000, at her home in Murfreesboro after a long illness. Born November 28, 1922, the daughter of the late William Vernon Ridley and Margaret Bell Ridley. She was a long time member of Central Church of Christ and Otter Creek Church of Christ. Mrs. Trousdale graduated as Salutatorian of Cohn High School in 1940 and a member of Cohn Alumni Association & Mardi Amis Sorority and attended David Lipscomb College and Harding College, where she was a Summa Cum Laude graduate, majoring in English and education. She retired from the Metropolitan Nashville School System after thirty years. Survived by her husband of fifty- five years, George Hilman Trousdale; brother Robert Ridley; sons Jerry Trousdale and David Trousdale; grandchildren, Jonathan Trousdale and Rebecca Bobo; great granddaughter Abigail Karen Bobo; devoted family member Katherine Loftis. Graveside services will be private. A memorial service will be conducted 1 p.m., Wednesday, June 21, at Otter Creek Church of Christ, 5253 Granny White Pike with Bro. Corky French officiating. In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to the Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Fund, The Carpenter’s House, Sierra Leone Mission Fund of Hospice of Murfreesboro. Visitation with the family 5:00-7:30 p.m., Tuesday, at Woodlawn Funeral Home, 660 Thompson Lane, 383-4754.

Comments by Sandra Collins

I visited Margaret after her devastating fall from a ladder left her in great pain, confined to a bed at home. Beside her was a book she was writing in. “I am keeping a listing of each day’s blessings,” she said. “When you leave, I will put down your name.” That memory has been mentioned in scores of ladies’ classes I have taught in many states to remind women to look for God in everything, both good and bad, and grab the blessings. I had their son Jerry in an English class at Lipscomb. He is now a highly regarded missionary bringing Muslims to Christ. He is also the author of Miraculous Movements. He is the director of International Ministries, which includes Final Command, with which our own Living Water Project partners.

Comments by Carolyn Wilson

Remembering Margaret, printed in the June 25, 2000, Otter Creek bulletin

George and Larry (Wilson) were from the same home town and they always enjoyed sharing this distinction. My father was George’s high school principal and teacher. I have saved letters from Margaret telling me how much his

guidance meant to George at a critical time in his young life. Few have the ability to express gratitude and few remember to do it after such a long time. Perhaps that was the teacher in Margaret recognizing that these are some of the more significant rewards that come from a lifetime of teaching. She knew the value.

As I reflected on what I could add to the beautiful eulogy at Margaret’s memorial service, it seemed so appropriate and complete that there was little left to be said. I do most especially remember Margaret’s loving care of her father in his last days. That commitment inspired me and I thought of it often as I made those decisions in caring for my mother during the years of her confinement. I never heard Margaret complain.

Nor did I hear her complain when the pain that attacked her body became extreme. Constant pain that dominates our lives can impact so intensely and how we evade it, how we succumb to it, how we deal with it, and how we transcend it molds us into the image of Christ. Margaret was able to transcend it. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross wrote in one of her books that we do not grow by sitting in a beautiful flower garden, but we grow when we are sick, when we are in pain, when we experience loss. If we do not put our heads in the sand but take the pain and learn to accept it, not as a curse or punishment, but as a gift with a very specific purpose, that growth will come with the accepting.

Courage comes in many packages and often the bigger scheme of things calls for us to BE rather than to act. We seldom recognize the long years of preparation that come in getting the self ready to be used. I believe Margaret understood this. Undoubtedly, the love and devotion of George and her sons gave her strength as well as the care and concern of all of us who loved her. We received far more than we gave.

Their concern for others was a priority. Whenever I talked with them in the last few years, the conversation always began with their concern for my brother, who struggles with cancer. Even as I met George at the funeral home Tuesday evening, his first words to me were, “How is your brother/”

How very appropriate that Margaret’s service ended with the haunting strains coming from John Catchings’ talented bow as he played the movement from Dvorak’s New World Symphony. Dvorak was impressed with the folk music in America and especially the spirituals. These words were set to Dvorak’s music known familiarly to us as “Goin’ Home”:

Goin’ home, goin’ home. I’m a goin’ home. Quiet like some still day, I’m just goin’ home. It’s not far, just close by, Jesus is the door. Work all done, care laid by, goin’ to fear no more. Mother’s there, specting me. Father’s waiting too. Lots of folks gathered there, all the friends I knew. Goin’ home, goin’ home, I’m a goin’ home. Goin’ home, goin’ home, I’m just goin’ home.

“The truest end of life is to know that life never ends.” William Penn