My Step-Mother ‘Mom’ Helen Sager
Helen’s story is fascinating and full of amazing events that shaped her into a very strong woman we came to love and respect. Below is the memorial message I shared with family and friends here in Sebring.
Mom Helen Sager Memorial Service, Sebring, FL
April 18, 2015
Open with prayer; read Proverbs 10:7; Romans 1:17; Special Music; Sing Hymns; Memories
In our experience some people are always old. Grandparents are commonly at least fifty years old when you are born so they always were old to you. Years later you realize that there was a lot about them you did not know about that contributed to making them what they were. When Mom Helen came into our lives she was already close to fifty years old. She had a very unusual preparation for becoming part of the Sager family. God tells us in Scripture that adversity is one of his tools to refine and develop our character. Some people resist the process and become hard and bitter. God uses humble materials under the pressure of trials to make his jewels. This ties in with her account of her early years when we did not know her yet. She was born Feb. 15, 1924 in Kiev, Ukraine. Her last name was Woskoboinik for about twenty years, and her actual first name was Elena. She was the oldest of three, with a brother, Yuriy, and a sister, Svetlana.
Here is Helen's talk
This is part of a talk she gave many years ago.
Changing Our World
Long ago in a far away land there lived a little girl growing up with the belief that "Religion was the opium of the people” and that God was invented by the capitalists to enslave the poor. The family lived in the capital of the country and were comfortable according to the living standards of their homeland and where people lived in very crowded quarters and conditions. Both parents worked and the girl’s aunt took care of this girl and her two younger siblings
This girl’s life revolved around her own needs and interests. She was a favorite of her father and was a very good student, always receiving awards for her achievements in schools.
One night there was a knock on their apartment door. Strange men (KGB) walked in and took her father away without any explanation. She was allowed to visit him in jail once, where he told her to never be ashamed of him, since he was innocent. He was sent away to a hard labor camp and she never saw him again. The family of six was forced to move out of their 3 room apartment into one room and they became a family of a political prisoner.
Three years later Germany attacked her homeland and the family moved (with all they could carry) to a small town to reside with her maternal grandparents. The war raged on and the German army occupied their town. Churches reopened after being closed for 20 years and her grandma took her to church. She taught her the Lord’s Prayer and told her many bible stories from her memory, since the bibles WERE
FORBIDDEN. There were no bibles available and this girl never saw one at that time.
This girl who always thought SHE was in CONTROL of her life didn’t realize that God was in CHARGE: alive and powerful. God is the only one that can cause a change! HE CHANGED HER WORLD AND HER LIFE. He chose her and she said “YES” and the Holy Spirit indwelling her heart led her from then on through her life. Once armed with the Holy Spirit, she was able to make changes, not only in her life but the lives of others too.
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When Helen picked out Scripture for her service from the N.T. epistles it was 1 Peter 1:3-9. God used trials and loss to bring hope, glory and resurrection in her life story. The trials in Helens life began early as she was separated from her family in WW2 by the Nazis. Her faith was tried by fire to make her a woman who would bring praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Being justified by faith gives a different perspective and experience of trials – Romans 5:1-6. God’s Word promises that all things work together for the good of his people who love him. Rom. 8:28 After the war she could not return to her family. She met and married Bernie Roessler in 1946 who was in the U.S. Air Force. They moved to the U.S.A. in 1947 and they raised their two children in Savannah, GA. For the next thirty years her last name was Roessler. Helen loved the U.S.A. This was her adopted country. Like Ruth in the Bible she was taken far from her native country and spent the rest of her life here. Nothing but death took her away.
Their son, Kenneth, recounted one of his memories of his mom.
One of Kenneth’s memories of his mother.
“Let me tell you about my mother, Helen Sager.
When I was about 3 years old, I caught Polio and was completely paralyzed on my left side. I ended up in an iron lung in the hospital for several months just so I could breathe. When I go out of the hospital I had no use of my left side. I was completely paralyzed. All the neurons that control the muscles had died from the Polio.
My parents took me home and shortly after this my father, who was in the Air Force, was sent to Korea and my mother was left with a new baby daughter and me. My Mom spent 3 years exercising every muscle on my left side, many times a day, until the neurons connected to the muscles and I could walk, ride a bike and use my left arm and hand. If she had not worked tirelessly for those 3 years, day-in and day-out, today I would not be able to stand and talk about my Mom. I would be sitting in a wheel chair, paralyzed on my left side from Polio. I would not have served in the Air Force for 24 years and indeed would have lived an entirely different life. I have my Mom to thank for my being here today.”
God used trials to strengthen Helen’s faith in God and mold her character. As I thought about what kind of woman she was many words came to mind: authentic, real, genuine, stable, steadfast, enduring, dependable, consistent, intelligent, capable, sensible, assertive, and strong. Helen had strong opinions, beliefs, determination and will. She was not easily impressed or swayed. She was not bashful about expressing herself. She understood the importance of words. On her mirror she had Proverbs 16:24 – ‘Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.’ This reminded her of the importance of depending on the Lord to give her words that would minister healing and sweetness to others. What could be sweeter to the soul and give more health than our Lord Jesus? This brings us to the Scripture she chose for her service from the Gospels – John 14:1-7. Jesus is the only way to be right with God. Trusting entirely in his sacrifice for us on the cross by dying in our place to pay for our sins is the way to God, the truth of God you can depend on with all you are and have and the life of God that is forever. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Through him Helen came to God and was received by grace. God forgave her sins and gave her Jesus’ righteousness. The cross is the greatest sacrifice ever made. Jesus gave his life voluntarily to suffer for our sins so all who believe gain eternity with him in glory and eternal life now. He did not come to condemn but to save us from our sins.
Another trial came when her husband Bernie died in 1972. Her faith was still working. She married Dad in October 1974 and for the last forty years her last name was Sager. Life is not all trials. God blessed Helen with another family. Helen became a good wife to Dad and an important member of our family. She proved God’s promises in adversity and knew his shepherding care. God made her a special woman.
After fifty years God allowed her to find her family while serving on a mission trip to Ukraine. In what she described as ‘Miracle of Miracles’ she found her family and was reunited with her sister, Svetlana and her old Aunt before she died. This was a very specific and wonderful answer to prayer.
In recent years we saw God’s faithful care through her loving husband, our Dad. God used her trial to bless and change her inwardly. The man she used to sometimes call, ‘Ogly American’ she regularly called ‘sweetheart.’ God’s Word says, 2 Corin. 4:13-18. Helen’s outward part perished before our eyes, but her inward part was renewed day by day as God promised. We heard her express her thanks for his loving attention and care. Helen became more humble, thankful and affectionate.
In her trials God taught Helen that Jesus is all you need for time and eternity. He is the way, the truth and the life. Despite losing her family and possessions she had Jesus by grace. God is indeed in control even when life seems so chaotic and cruel. Through the loss of health and physical capabilities and memory God continued to be with her. Jesus was all she needed. He was with her through all the fiery trials. His strength is made perfect in weakness. By losing your life you find it.
After living in the Ukraine (Pavlohrad), Savannah, GA, Avon Park, FL, Tallahassee, FL, Hudson, FL, and her beloved North Georgia mountain home in Blairsville with such beautiful scenery she is now home where she hears and speaks only pleasant words. After losing everything she has Jesus forever. She is with her family. God was faithful to her as he promised. His abundant mercy gives us the new birth in regenerating grace unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.’ Trust Jesus to make you right with God. He kept Helen through faith unto salvation. Over these ninety years God prepared Helen to be presented faultless before God’s presence with exceeding great joy through Jesus. Praise be to God for his unspeakable gift of grace. The memory of the just is blessed. Remember how God was everything she needed through life and in death. Remember how God used trials to mold her character and make her a woman of faith and fruitfulness. Remember how God put his treasure in a vessel of clay so all the glory would be His. Remember that to be right with God is by faith alone in Jesus alone. These memories are truly blessed. We bless God for Helen.
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