Eva – Mary Hardin-Baylor

Do you ever wish you had asked? You can spend your whole life with someone and reach a point when you wish you had talked about something you never really talked about. I wish I knew more about Eva’s time attending Mary Hardin-Baylor to share with our daughters and grandchildren. That was when she was first on her own, making new friends, taking on new challenges, and choosing the things most important to her.

I never knew she had gone to MHB until after we had been married for several months and then it only came up because she got a letter about a $250 loan she had taken out for her last semester. Eva never talked about herself or the things she had been involved with. Our dating was less than six months, and my work hours were crazy for years. We had discussed my time at the University of Houston and my plans for a career, but she did not like talking about her life. She had an image of my childhood and family life had been wonderful and she was not eager to discuss hers until many years later.

Eva had begun singing in the adult choir at about 14 or 15 and I knew she sang in the choir at high school, but I never gave it much thought, because I could never sing. When Eva began singing solos and with groups for special music at church, I knew she had a gift. When she was selected to sing with the UBA Choir and the Houston Symphony Orchestra for the Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus, I knew she had committed to use that gift for the glory of God.

For years, music ministers from two churches would give Eva’s name to families who wanted someone to sing at funerals, weddings, and other events. She worked with children’s choirs at church and worked in Vacation Bible School. She was a homeroom mother at our daughters’ schools and two of our granddaughters’ schools.

Eva was a talented person and became exceptionally good at making dresses for our girls when they were younger and even bridesmaid dresses years later for both Tammy’s and Jennifer’s weddings. She made a lot of her clothes through the years and for our daughters’ weddings. Over the years, she got good at baking cakes and decorating them at a professional level.

When we lived in our first house, our neighborhood started a civic club and I was its first President; however, Eva was the one that really made it a success. She did most of the work between the meetings and got the notices out to the neighborhood before there were emails or cell phones. She got other ladies to help and put on a Fall Festival for the entire neighborhood at a nearby church for free. They got donations from stores, bread companies, and businesses to provide food, drinks, candy, gifts, and games.

Our grandchildren are adults now and I realized their memories of their grandmother are mostly about their relationship with her. I want them to know more about her and to be able to share with their children something more about her. When a loved one is gone from us, that library is closed. We need to do that research before it is gone. We all have bits and pieces from them that get passed on and become a part of who we are. It is special when we can see that in our lives. You may get a new phone every two years, but that does not compare to having personal stories about your parents or their parents.

Eva was a student at Mary Hardin-Baylor during 1961-62 and 1962-63 years. She was a member of the “A Cappella Choir” for both years and a member of the “PSI Theta” Club and the “Baptist Student Union”. I can tell from the comments in both years’ books that she had made many close friends and a couple that became life-long friends.

Ephesians 2:10
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”