(tribute paid by Howard at my Mum's funeral)
Tribute to Bee Adams (1933-2009) on occasion of Service of Thanksgiving
at Druminnis Presbyterian Church on Wednesday 11th March 2009.
I want to say a word of sincere thanks to Rev. Sam Finlay, minister of Druminnis Presbyterian Church for the opportunity to take part in this Service today and pay a tribute to Bee Adams. Our family (Anne, my wife and Jennifer, our daughter are here today along with Anne’s father John) count it a privilege to be here to thank God for the life and witness of a lady who has meant so much to us over the last number of years but especially during our time here in Co. Armagh. I’m also grateful to John, Roger and Mark for the invitation to give this précis of Bee’s life and for all their help in furnishing me with various facts from Bee’s life. Our heartfelt sympathy today is with John and Jacqueline, Roger and Ruth, Mark and Julie as well as Caitlin, Riona, Charlotte and Katherine, Bee’s grandchildren whom she loved so much. We remember also Bee’s sisters Isa, Eva, Faye and brother Cecil and their families today on their loss.
Olive Beatrice (Bee) Thompson was born in Larne in 1933, youngest of five children of Mary and William Thompson. They moved to Markethill where William was a police sergeant at Markethill RUC station. Bee always remembered her father sounding the air raid siren on top of the police station, and how Gosford was used to house German prisoners and American GIs. While attending Armagh Girls High School, she first met John Adams, a pupil at the Royal School. John knew Bee’s brother Cecil. She finished her schooling in Ballyclare, and enrolled as a trainee teacher in Stranmillis College. She met John Adams again there, and also met her lifelong friends Rita and Laura. After Stranmillis, Bee started teaching in Ballyclare. She married John on 3rd July 1958 in St. John’s Parish Church in Ballyclare and moved to Hamiltonsbawn. She took up a teaching post at Salter’s Grange Primary School where John also worked.
John Junior duly arrived in 1961, followed by Derek in 1964. Derek had Downs Syndrome and sadly died at 18 months. This was a body-blow to Bee and John, a deep sadness that she never lost. Roger was born in 1968, shortly after Bee and John moved to their present house opposite John Senior at the (then) green field site at the top of Hamiltonsbawn. Mark followed in 1971.
The Troubles started in 1968, and were to dominate John and Bee’s life for the next 30 years. John was an officer in the Ulster Defence Regiment and worked in one of the most volatile parts of Northern Ireland, operating out of Glenanne Barracks. Although many friends and colleagues were killed, the UDR also offered new horizons and opportunities, and the chance to meet many people from outside Northern Ireland. Bee was a member of the Wives Club [amazingly un-PC, isn’t it] providing social events and support. It is difficult to imagine the stress of those years, particularly for Bee who was affected by the uncertainty of waiting, wondering and worrying whether her ` husband was safe and secure from the threat of terrorism. However, one of Bee’s proudest moments was attending Buckingham Palace in 1977 where John received his MBE.
Bee spent most of her teaching life in Salter’s Grange, and saw several generations of children through their primary education. She retired in 1985 after approximately 30 years. Unfortunately around this time John was diagnosed with cancer, but thankfully had successful treatment. Bee was a wonderful support to John through all his years of illness, a constant encouragement and companion by his side. Unfortunately John died suddenly in 1997. This brought great sadness to Bee and I’ll never forget that morning in late September of that year when the ‘phone rang in the manse. It was Bee informing me that John had passed away. Earlier that very year Anne’s mother had passed away and it was Bee who had come over without hesitation to the manse to offer her support to us as a grieving family. We will never ever forget her kindness to us through all our years here on Co. Armagh but especially then at a time of great loss to our family.
Bee was like a ‘second mother’ and garndmother to our family. Our children literally adored her and spent many happy hours with her in her home in Hamiltonsbawn. On the very day of my mother-in –law’s funeral it was Bee who looked after our then very young son David for the day. To her it was a joy to do so for that was the kind of person she was. She put herself last and always seemed to put the interests of others before herself.
To me she was someone I could turn to and know I would receive a sympathetic ear. We will forever be grateful to God that He brought Bee Adams into our lives - her deep and solid friendship, her gentle words of mature advice and above all her encouragement especially in times of difficulty were of inestimable and I believe eternal value and cannot merely be put into words. Neither will we as a family forget all her practical help when we moved to Moira in 2001. She came to our new home and literally did a mountain of work helping us in so many ways as we settled into new surroundings. This and in a multitude of other ways, including all her unrecorded acts of love and thoughtfulness we are thankful to Almighty God for today.
Bee was actively involved in Druminnis church life. She had been a member of the choir since 1958, a Sunday School teacher for 20 years, a Committee Member and Church Secretary, and a President of the PWA. I had the wonderful privilege as her pastor and minister here for some 12 years of seeing her grow spiritually. I knew first hand of her faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as her own and personal Saviour, her deep desire to ‘know Him more and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of her own’ as the hymnwriter puts it.
She often spoke to me about spiritual matters and it was always a great joy to see the radiance in her face that was the outward indication of her inward relationship with Christ. Like Ruth in the Old Testament who said to Naomi ‘’Your God shall be my God’ and so embraced the covenant God in that wonderful affirmation in Ruth 1 vs16, so Bee had come to embrace this same God in Jesus Christ as He was offered in the Gospels and experienced personally His life and power for everyday living. What Beatrice Cleland wrote in her poem ‘Portrait of A Christian’ could be said of Beatrice (Bee) Adams also:
Not only in the words you sayNot only in your deeds confessedBut in the most unconscious wayIs Christ expressed.For me 'twas not the truth you taught,To you so clear, to me so dim,But when you came to me,You brought a sense of Him.And from your eyes He beckons meand from your heart His love is shed,'Till I lose sight of youAnd see the living Christ instead.
Bee became ill in April 2004 and spent several months in hospital and Roxborough House, Moy. With the help of Premier Care, and particularly her carers Jennifer and Caroline, she was able to continue to live independently at home for over four years. She took seriously ill around 2 weeks ago and was admitted to Craigavon Hospital. God called her home last Sunday. Someone once said ‘Christians don’t leave home, they go home.’ Bee last Sunday ‘went home’ to be ‘with Christ which is better by far.’
