Chapter 10: Mrs. Van’s Family
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to stay in Albuquerque for two or three years, but in 2008, some thirty-five years later, she is still at Presbyterian, serving as a volunteer member of the board of directors. And her first meeting with Mrs. Van in 1973 is engraved indelibly in her mind. Mrs. Van asked Godwin to come visit her at her house across Silver. Joyce looked forward to the meeting. “I went over to see her,” Joyce recalled, “and she said, ‘Well, you’re finally here.’ And I said something like, ‘Oh, I’m mistaken; I thought I had the right time. I’m sorry if I’m late.’ But she said, ‘No, you’re finally here.’” Mrs. Van proceeded to tell Godwin that she had been praying for her to arrive for a number of years, and she would know Godwin anywhere. “You are the person who I have seen,” Mrs. Van told Joyce, “and you are finally here. Let’s sit down and talk about what you need to do.” Over the next eleven years, Godwin worked closely with Mrs. Van on a number of projects. She got to see a side of Mrs. Van that even those who had known her for years might not have suspected. Mrs. Van read her Bible every day until her eyesight began to fail her at the age of eighty, and then she listened to Bible studies on her radio. She had always gotten tremendous exercise just walking the halls of the hospital, and when her health began to fail her, she kept her exercise regimen intact, walking through her tiny house for a half-hour while she listened to the Bible programs on the radio.
Below: Earl and Joyce Godwin at Mrs. Van’s award dinner. Courtesy: Joyce Godwin
September 1978
She loved listening to Billy Graham, and through her husband’s family in North Carolina had a longstanding connection to the evangelist and his wife. She was a devotee of Oswald Chambers, a twentieth-century religious writer, and she was never averse to asking others to pray with her. She lived her faith and never tried to impose it on others. Godwin worked with Mrs. Van until her death in 1984
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