Elizabeth "Betty" (Buckingham) Fitzgerald

I'm sorry to write this but my dear wife, Betty, died suddenly on Thursday evening at Sewickley Hospital. Today would be her birthday, December 7th. She had survived Alzheimer's for almost fourteen years but caught a cold on Tuesday and was sick only two days. She seemed to be turning the bend, but on Thursday morning she aspirated on a single tablespoon of cough medicine. Her lungs began to fill and the hospital could do little for her. Betty was gone in less than twelve hours. She had been cheerful and standing just two days before. It was such a shock. I can hardly say how much I will miss her.

Last year at this very time she nearly died while in the hospital and rehab for two months. The Lord taught me many lessons then and knew how vulnerable she would be after that to aspiration, despite her continued physical strength. But I believe he gave me this extra year to prepare. I wouldn't have done as well just a year ago.

Though I will never see her happy smile again in this life or hold her hand, I praise God that she is now with her Lord that she loved and served her whole life. She has "come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem…to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to the God and judge of all, and to the souls of just men made perfect." Because of her faith in Christ, Betty was "justified" in God's eyes, but now that her fallen nature is gone in death, her soul has been "made perfect" forever.

My wife was a humble, accomplished, behind-the-scenes worker in God's kingdom who was so bright and completely devoted to serving Christ that this drew me to her in the first place. She had served as executive secretary or administrative assistant to four of five of the country's top Christian leaders before we married. She brought all that to our marriage and made huge sacrifices to do the work the Lord called us to with hardly any recognition.

I had planned to share the testimony of these things in my third Facebook post about Sam Shoemaker's prayer for Pittsburgh. But Betty died before I could write it this week. Initially, John Guest had called her to Pittsburgh from missions work in Costa Rica to help serve Shoemaker's vision. That was the vision we pursued together in our ministry to seek revival in America.

But now Betty is with her Savior forever and someday I will see her again. My dearest lovely wife was truly one of those the scriptures say the world wasn't worthy of.

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