- Date Of Death: December 16, 2017
- State: Illinois
Luella Faye Yoder of Chicago, IL went to be with the Lord on Saturday, December 16, 2017, after succumbing to complications from the West Nile Virus.
Luella was born on February 2, 1934, at Albany General Hospital in Oregon to Orval and Lena Smucker. She was the third of seven children. She grew up on a farm outside the small town of Harrisburg, Or.
Luella’s mother, Lena, led a progressive and adventurous life before marriage, working in the hops fields before the prohibition and in an apple factory in Washington, owning her own Chevy Coup in the 20s. Luella’s father settled the family near Harrisburg and became a successful seed farmer.
At the age of 18, Luella turned a new page in her life. She married Martin Yoder, Jr.
In 1969, the adventure continued.
But, in the summer of 1969, tragedy hit the family. The two teenage sons had gone back to Oregon to help with the harvest on her father’s farm. One day in the field, Donald, the oldest, while trying to unjam his combine, got caught in the throes of the blades. He held on for dear life, but by the time he was found, his body had been torn up from the chest to his feet. His feet had to be amputated. After many months of rehab, including learning to walk on prosthetic legs, he lived a rather normal life. Sadly, and especially hard for Luella, Don passed away of pancreatic cancer in 2009.
Luella was a rock. She had no choice. Of course, questions flooded her mind. Did she do something wrong to deserve this? Should the family pack up and move back to Oregon? Luella did not waiver. The Christian values she was raised on and her fresh touch with Christ kept her steady on course, a way of life that would characterize her faithfulness to follow the Lord until the day she left us.
The adventure continued.
God blessed the family in the 70s. Martin became a union plumber with a steady job and the family bought a large house, bedrooms for everyone to sleep in.
But, more turmoil soon followed. In the summer of 1978, due to unforeseen events, Luella was left to raise 4 teenage children on her own. Luella hadn’t had a job outside of the home. She decided to do what she did best—care for children. She started a home-based day care and worked tirelessly to support her four teenage children, pay the mortgage and daily necessities. She never broke down. She never gave up.
Luella always put the well-being of others before herself, in business and at home. In her children’s minds, she was terrible at business. She would, at times, babysit for parents that could not pay, with the explanation that others needed money more than her. She would sell 10-20 of her home-made loaves of bread every week and bake and decorate cakes for weddings and birthdays for little profit. To Luella, it was about serving others and not financial gain. In 1987, she joined a Hurricane relief effort in Taiwan, shining God’s glory through good works overseas.
Luella loved her family.
Thanksgiving was special to her. She would often plan months in advance to receive as many of her family as possible. There was always a delicious, traditional feast, including her warm rolls from the oven and her raspberry jam (the raspberries were from her bushes in the back yard). She would sit at the head of the table and quietly enjoy the chaotic conversation around the table. She was especially interested to know the spiritual well-being of each, and then she would commit each in prayer.
Luella’s life was extraordinarily difficult in several ways, but she also experienced blessings from the Lord; her life was full of color, as in a precious stone for God’s building, a treasure to Christ. She will be sorely missed by us remaining on earth.
She is survived by her sisters, Allene Smucker-Klasson and Nadine Young, by her children, Lowell Yoder (Frannie), Vern Yoder (Esther), Rhonda Berglund (John), Rita Wells (Tom) and Douglas Yoder (Caroline),16 grandchildren, Alexis, Carleton, Nathan, Renee, Jason, Paul, Michelle, April, Rebecca, Benjamin, Bethany, Tyler, Leanna, Savannah, Tori, Derek, and 2 great grandchildren, Addison and Carter.
