Someone has said that “Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.”

Lena Bowers Peters shared the fragrance of forgiveness day in and day out.  “My mother was one of the most forgiving persons I have ever known,” said her daughter, Vickie Pearce. In addition to forgiving, she was a person full of love. “She loved her family and was really good to people. She never met a stranger,” Vickie further shared.

Her former pastor, the Rev. Kenneth Bewley, echoed Vickie’s thoughts. “Lena was a jokester, very comical, very friendly, loving, and very giving. She was a great friend,” he shared.

Lena was one of 16 children, and was the next to the youngest. “She was the last one left of the 16, and I can’t imagine what it was like to watch each one of your siblings go. I know it must have been painful for her, and perhaps at time lonely, but she kept on going, kept on living, and kept on giving,” said Vickie.

Lena was not one of those people to sit at home. When she retired from Texas Instruments, she soon went to work at Big Lots and worked seven more years. “She enjoyed working and especially meeting new people. She was one of those people that had to be moving and doing,” said Vickie.

“She was a good housekeeper and everything had its place, that is until the great-grandchildren came. They were her world,” her daughter shared.

She had a grandson, Brian Bradshaw, and his wife, Becky, and two great-grandsons, Colton and Collin Bradshaw.

Lena, in addition to her work, enjoyed decorating, gardening and tending her flowers. “Mom had a houseful of what-nots. She especially liked angels. And, she had a lot of house flowers. She was all the time moving things around and re-decorating,” said Vickie. “She especially enjoyed this time of the year, when she would go to the greenhouse or plant store and shop for flowers to plant in her beds. She also liked to decorate at Christmas.”

“My Mom was a good person and a Christian. She never drank, smoked, or cursed. She was a member of Roan Street Church of God, and enjoyed her church. For the past year or so she had been unable to attend because of her failing health,” Lena’s daughter shared.

Vickie said that even though her mother liked working outside the home — and did so well into her 70s — she was a homebody. “She never traveled anywhere, didn’t care for social outings except for church. She was content to stay at home when she wasn’t working. She was not one to watch a lot of television or do much reading. She kept busy with her housework and plants,” said Vickie.

In addition to being forgiving, both Vickie and Preacher Bewley described Lena as a very compassionate and giving person.

Both compassion and forgiveness are noble traits that require much grace, and aside from her many other qualities, forgiveness and compassion were the two that most marked Lena Bowers Peters’ life.