I was thirteen, a tall thin tomboy on a red bike getting a post card with my father's well known scrawl addressed to my mother – but it was a post card, and anyone may read a post card. "Elected for a three-year term as superintendent of Kentucky-Tennessee Conference," it said. As my bike quickly covered the mile to the hospital where Mother worked in Wessington Springs, South Dakota, I refused to believe we would be moving, but her taciturn nod assured me it was true. A few weeks later Daddy returned eager to share his enthusiasm with us about Kentucky and especially about Oakdale which would be close enough to our home so I could attend.

And that was the story of my mother's life – Daddy would make things happen, and Mother would follow – always his helpmate – never in the limelight, and the epitome of the adage, "Bloom where you're planted." At fifty-one, she traded her beloved Dakota prairies for eastern Kentucky hills and her position as administrator of the county hospital for a job as bookkeeper at a car dealership and garage. When Daddy returned to the pastorate, she became a parsonage queen again, always endearing herself to Daddy's congregation. When Daddy retired, she came with him to the Oakdale campus and helped him build a retirement home where she stayed for eighteen years after God called her husband home to heaven.

Affectionately known as Grandma O. to all the campus, Gladys Williams Odermann continued her husband's work serving students, staff, and visitors even after her second retirement at age 87. Her headstone aptly reads, "A life of service. December 12, 1909 - December 8, 2004."

Lois Huff is dean of student at Oakdale Christian Academy. She recently completed her 25th year of service as part of the Oakdale ministry.