Rajmund Dabrowski – Delta, Colorado … When members of the Delta Seventh-day Adventist Church in Delta, Colorado, opened their Sabbath’s bulletin, they could not miss a triple title welcoming them to their worship service. There it was: Happy Sabbath, Happy Father’s Day, and Happy Birthday, Thelma!
Thelma Hufman was to become the Delta’s Adventist centenarian on June 15. The church joined several members of her 44-member family in a special lunch in her honor.
When asked how she got to be 100, Thelma’s daughter Murleen Goodrich shared her straight answer: “One day at a time.”
Surrounded by several of her children, she reflected on her special day, wondering, “how is it possible. I never dreamed that. I love my family.”
Thelma maintains a sense of humor. Looking at a group of her family members, she said, “Look at what I am responsible for.”
She was born in a two-room cabin in Del Norte, Colorado, to an Adventist family and lived together with her six siblings. Today she is the oldest of 44-member Adventist family, with a great great grand-son, being the youngest.
After her wedding, she became a farm wife. Reminiscing about her young life, Murleen commented, “we always had work to do on the farm.”
“We had to listen to mom,” she added.
Dale Goodrich, elder of the Delta Adventist congregation and married to Thelma’s daughter Murleen, said plainly, “She is my mother-in-law. It’s been a long, hard journey for both of us. But she’s been a really good mother-in-law.”
“I really appreciated her. She is a Seventh-day Adventist forever,” he added.
Answering simply to a question what’s it like to have a 100-year-old grandmother, Jerry Goodrich, Thelma’s grandson, said, “She keeps me in line.”
—Rajmund Dabrowski is a member of Seventh-day Adventist Church in Delta, Colorado. Photos supplied and by Rajmund Dabrowski.
