Reunited Helen Maurer was born at home, January 27, 1929, in the tiny coal mining village of Doutyville, PA. Her father was Joseph Irvin Maurer, a coal miner, and her mother was Mary Malinda (Schreffler). Helen was the youngest of the seven children who lived to become adults. The Pennsylvania Dutch community had big families, and Helen had 125 first cousins, not counting their spouses. Milk was very scarce when Helen was born, so she was fed with bread and sugar water. Sugar and salt were purchased by the pound, poured into brown bags and tied with string. The only meat she had when growing up was some roast on Sunday, and maybe a can of salmon during the week. Sometimes they purchased some sausage from a butcher that passed through the village once a week and her mother would surround it with melted lard because they had no ice box. There were only two books in the home, and these were brought out only when someone was sick. Toys were scarce, and she had only one coloring book. She would receive no toys for Christmas, but would receive one orange and some hard candy. The children would receive twenty peanuts every pay day rather than candy or ice cream. She was a happy little girl even though her robe was sewn from feed bags. The children would sleep three to a bed, and during holidays, four. Sometimes some of them had no shoes and went barefoot—even in the winter! In 1934 snowdrifts reached heights of fifteen to twenty four feet and blocked off all supplies from coming in to the village. Tunnels were carved through the snow. In spite of the hardships, Helen was a happy girl. Helen was raised in a Christian home and since there were no cars in the village, her mother would walk with her pre-school children four miles round trip from Doutyville to Helfenstein to attend church. Later, her father started attending church with the family. When Helen was about six, the family purchased a car, and attended the Evangelical Methodist church that was started in Lavelle about seven miles away. During World War II they would take lunch to church so that they could stay all day as gas was rationed. Many years later Helen was married in this church. When Helen was a teenager, her sister, Irene, moved to New Jersey to work and boarded with her Uncle Clarence Maurer's family. She obtained a job working in the same factory with a girl named Elma Bump. Irene then became acquainted with the Bump family. When Helen went down to visit Irene, she met Lester Bump. Eventually, Helen and Lester started dating and became married on March 26,1949. Helen's married life began in Bridgeton, New Jersey, at 172 E. Myrtle Street in half of a double home that Lester was buying. Then they lived in a mobile home and carried water from the neighbors. Helen and Lester had three boys. The first boy, Lester Joseph Jr., only lived two days. She had difficulty with her pregnancies so was allowed to have only three children. Later they purchased a home on Salem Avenue in Newfield and moved there in December 1950. They had an outside "John" the first couple years on Salem Avenue, and while on Salem Avenue, Joseph Irvin and Durwin Lee were born. Lester and Helen loved to travel. They had travel trailers and motor homes, and traveled in all 48 states and Canada. Joseph took them to the four main islands of Hawaii for their 45th anniversary. For their 50th, many folk came to their home to hear harp music and various relatives speak, sing and play music. Helen had a special gift for cooking. She would have company for "several course" meals emphasizing unique meat recipes such as saurbraten with ginger, souse (cold jellied pickled pig trimmings), scrapple, sour potato soup, rivel soup, spaetzels in broth, klops noodles, schnitz un nepp, dried corn custard, dandelion with sweet-sour hot bacon dressing, etc., etc. Once the guests counted up, and she had made four complete meals—four soups, four salads, four meats, four vegetables, four desserts, etc.! The meal was usually followed by several hours of viewing slides she had taken on some trip. Many church friends and relatives would stay overnight, and then have a "several course" breakfast. For decades she battled with arthritis using aspirin and muscle relaxers every day, yet her ambition kept her going. Later she took up the hobby of stripping furniture and then "hand rubbing" a new finish onto it. Then she began making ceramic lamps and dishes, porcelain birds, etc. Following that hobby she collected and sold antique dolls, formed molds for porcelain doll heads, made twenty-some porcelain reproductions of antique dolls, and collected furnishings for her very large doll house. Occasionally she would write some poetry. She also played some on the cornet, guitar, mandolin, harmonica, piano, organ, and omnichord. Helen always liked to go to church, and when Helen was 15, at their annual camp meeting, the Lord really saved her. She received an experience of "death-route holiness" when she and Lester attended the campmeeting in Salem, Ohio, in 1948. While there, they drove out to the old dam at Guilford Lake and became engaged. For 27 years she and Lester attended the Tollesboro, Kentucky, camp meetings. All through life she wanted only genuine religion. She had no use for just a form of religion. In a one-week period she had two professional people remark to her: "Helen, you radiate joy!" Helen showed her love to others by calling them, writing to them, making them floral bouquets, or sending them samples of her cooking. She and her husband often visited the sick in hospitals or nursing homes, and sang many times there and in church. For thirty-some years she would begin most days trying to think of how she could cheer someone—send a card, write a letter, or arrange a floral bouquet. She heard this was termed being a "card messenger". She sometimes spoke in various churches, and would sing with various relatives and friends. When Lester retired, they decided to move to Colorado Springs, CO, to be near their two sons and their families. So seven years before, they filled their motor home and a luggage trailer with belongings, and took them to Colorado. They did this for seven years, and like Jericho, on the seventh year, 1993, seven trips were made! Helen enjoyed her home at 1213 Pike Drive, Colorado Springs, and would often remark about the beautiful view out her front window of the Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak. Unfortunately, her dear husband started suffering with Alzheimers. Helen cared for him for two and a half years when most wives would have said it is impossible, and put their husband in a care facility. This she considered to be an almost heavenly accomplishment, but she loved her husband of nearly fifty-five years. In 2004 Lester moved to a better world. Helen continued to live at home alone until March of 2011. She had lived in her beautiful home for 18 years. She moved to a private cottage in the Village at Skyline. On April 17, 2014, she moved to Salem, Ohio, lived with her granddaughter, Eunice, for a year, and then moved to The Courtyard at Lexington, also in Salem. But she felt she was ready to meet her Maker, and moved to a world with a much better view at 1:15 a.m. on Feb. 16, 2018, at the age of 89. She always loved her roses, and now the mother rose blooms beyond the wall. Helen, you loved us, and we love you and thank you! She was preceded in death by her parents, two sisters, four brothers, her husband, Lester Joseph Bump, and a son, Lester Joseph Jr. You will be missed by your sister Lydia Eva Moser of Allentown, Pennsylvania, your missionary sister Irene Betty Maurer of Bedford, Indiana, your son Joseph Irvin Bump (and Lianne [Kelley]) of Denver, Colorado, your son Daniel Lee Franklin (formerly Durwin Lee) Bump (and Elaine [Stevenson])of Louisville, Kentucky, your six grandchildren, your nineteen great grandchildren, and your great, great granddaughter. You are also missed by Dr. Mary Schmidt-Libby who was Helen's "God-child" niece, and who is a famous doctor having been president over 2,500 doctors in Washington, D. C., other countless nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends. The great vacancy you have left in our lives can never be filled. But the vacancy in our hearts is constantly filled with cherished memories:

One is not gone—

Who touched the lives of others

In such a warm and caring way.

One is not lost—

Who warmed the lives of all around

With freely given friendship.

One is not forgotten—

Who found the way to others' hearts

And mapped a route to love.