RANDOLPH CENTER — Practically each piece of correspondence Betty Edson wrote — and there have been many over the course of her 91 years — she signed the identical manner: “Braveness within the wrestle for justice and peace.”
“Her focus was at all times on difficult injustices, working for justice and dealing for peace,” stated Beverly Anderson, a long-time buddy of Edson’s. “She had a deep religion that that is what she was referred to as to do, and her love of individuals whoever they have been. She noticed injustices and she or he wished to the very best of her capacity to make a distinction.”
Edson, who died on Feb. 1, 2022, was a fierce advocate for justice and peace. She took journeys to the U.S.-Mexico border to satisfy with immigrants and push for reform. She visited and corresponded with people who find themselves incarcerated as a result of, to her, everybody deserved possibilities to develop and alter.
“She had talked lately about how, when she was a baby, she at all times felt she had God together with her,” stated Edson’s daughter, Susan Wiszniak. “Extra lately we realized that when she stated that she at all times felt God was together with her, she outlined that as she at all times felt she had the ability of affection together with her.”
Edson was born on Sept. 22, 1930, in Attleboro, Mass., and got here to Vermont to grow to be a pupil at Middlebury School, the place she graduated with honors and a French diploma in 1952. Shortly after, she married David Hatch Edson, a Dartmouth School pupil whom she met on a blind date and who predeceased her. After a pair years in New York State, they moved to Norwich when David took a job at his alma mater. For a time, Edson taught kindergarten and was a trainer’s aide whereas elevating the couple’s three youngsters. When her oldest youngsters, Wiszniak and Stuart Edson, have been out of the home and her youngest little one, Lynn Sheldon was in highschool, Edson determined to grow to be a licensed pastor with the United Church of Christ.
“I believe she simply acquired to the purpose the place she felt like she had time to pursue one thing on her personal,” Wiszniak, of Wethersfield, Conn., stated.
Edson served as pastor on the Sharon Congregational Church for 13 years, from the early Nineteen Eighties by the early Nineteen Nineties. In her sermons, she typically introduced in points she was dealing with in her personal life to attach together with her parishioners.
“She at all times pushed individuals to suppose past the place they at the moment have been at, whether or not it was personally or serious about the world,” Sheldon, of Mexico, N.Y., stated.
David Edson, the introvert to Edson’s extrovert, was at all times supportive and good-natured about his spouse’s many causes.
“The congregation referred to as him the minister’s spouse,” Sheldon stated.
“She referred to as him her sounding board,” Wiszniak added. “They might sit down each evening earlier than dinner with a glass of wine and speak by all their problems with the day.”
Their sturdy communication abilities had an enormous impact on their youngsters, as did Edson’s openness when she made fallacious choices.
“She would brazenly share that, in all probability so we’d know for our youngsters,” Sheldon stated.
Throughout her time in Sharon, Edson turned a mentor to Anderson, who was turning into a licensed pastor. Additionally they have been each a part of the Vermont UCC Division of Mission and labored along with the Vermont Low Revenue Advocacy Council to host a camp for low-income Vermonters.
“She simply inspired everybody to be the very best that they might be,” Edson’s buddy Anderson, of Killington, Vt., stated, typically asking individuals to look deep inside themselves and ask: “What are you actually referred to as to do?”
After leaving Sharon, the Edsons moved to Randolph Middle and have become members of Bethany Church. It was there that Edson met her good buddies, Irene Schafer and Wendy Ross.
Two years separated Schafer and Edson; their birthdays have been two days aside. Additionally they have been each solely youngsters.
“I believe she developed a way of compassion early in life, with reaching out to others as a result of if you’re an solely little one, you have a tendency to succeed in out to others, particularly others of the identical age and similar curiosity since you don’t have that companionship at dwelling,” Schafer, of Randolph, stated.
Edson was additionally conscious of the privileges she had: She was the primary in her household to go to varsity, when a lot of her highschool classmates didn’t. And she or he took to coronary heart how individuals have been handled otherwise due to the colour of their pores and skin or their backgrounds.
“She noticed early in life the injustices that have been finished to individuals of colour and individuals who had much less,” Schafer stated.
Edson based Bethany’s Peace and Justice Committee and served as its chair for 17 years. The group learn books, hosted audio system, led dialogue teams and wrote letters to legislators on a wide range of subjects.
“We weren’t there to have lighthearted conversations,” Ross, of Randolph Middle, stated. “We have been there to advocate for justice and peace.”
Edson visited the U.S.-Mexico border by BorderLinks to see firsthand the challenges immigrants face and realized Spanish to raised help migrant farmworkers in Vermont. Her sturdy Christian religion was “a serious, main drive, a lifelong dedication and drive to be — as we see it — doing God’s work on the planet,” Ross stated. “As a pastor she adopted what was within the Bible and she or he preached what was within the Bible. She preached what she believed Jesus taught.”
Whereas most of her hobbies have been critical, Edson at all times made time for laughter and levity. She liked phrase puzzles, enjoying piano and studying. She at all times had two books going on the similar time: One which was nonfiction a couple of extra critical subject and the second a novel. She’d let herself learn the novel solely as soon as she spent a sure period of time with the nonfiction ebook, her daughters stated. As they have been rising up, Edson would harness her creativeness to amuse her youngsters.
“We had little gnomes who lived within the yard she would inform tales about” named Twinkletoes and Amanda, Wiszniak stated.
Her pleasure might be infectious. One time, she was telling Schafer and a gaggle of buddies about her new rest room, which bubbled when it was flushed.
“We laughed and stated ‘Betty, what’s so nice?’” Schafer recalled. So Edson invited them over to point out them. “We gathered one afternoon at Betty’s home and we watched the bathroom flush and the bubbles go round. She served us tea and cookies. We had a superb giggle about Betty’s Bathroom Tea Occasion.”
One yr, Edson and Schafer traveled with Ross to go to her household in Nice Britain.
“She was nice to benefit from the surroundings and the journey, nevertheless it didn’t transfer her to tour the York Minster which to me is likely one of the most grand and superb cathedrals on the planet,” Schafer recalled. “Betty didn’t care. She wished to sit down outdoors on the bench and watch individuals go by.”
Folks, on the whole, have been at all times Edson’s focus. She cared for them, strove to grasp them, and maybe even extra so — assist them perceive one another. Edson was very measured in her communication, preferring the written phrase to cellphone calls. She additionally was a prolific journal author for greater than 30 years.
“A part of her routine each day … was to learn what she was doing, 10, 15, 20 years in the past after which write about the day gone by,” Sheldon stated. On the time of her demise, she had stuffed 70 journals. “That was her sounding board, … to attempt to determine ideas out on paper.”
Solely then would she talk about her ideas with different individuals. Generally throughout a dialogue she would pull out one in all her journals and quote from it. Her correspondence with individuals stretched a long time.
Within the final years of her life, Edson lived at Morgan Orchards Senior Residing Neighborhood in Randolph Middle, which hosted a each day gathering the place individuals would sit and chat.
“She knew that folks have been purposely making an attempt to keep away from hot-button points to keep away from battle and stated we actually ought to have an avenue for individuals to speak about issues like that,” Wiszniak stated.
Edson got here up with an inventory of tips and guidelines for individuals to observe when discussing delicate topics. She wished to verify individuals had a possibility to speak and felt they have been being listened to.
“She wouldn’t keep away from conversations, she went headstrong into them,” Sheldon stated. “She wished to grasp the opposite particular person’s perspective… so she may higher perceive them.”
Edson was calm throughout heated discussions and her buddies say they by no means noticed her in a mood, even when one thing vastly upset her.
“She’d hearken to their viewpoint and have her personal arguments and rebuttal,” Schafer stated. “Many people get on our excessive horse, however Betty at all times, in my estimation, revered the opposite particular person’s viewpoint even when they didn’t agree together with her personal.”
That was a continuing all through her life, an extension of her dedication to peace and justice. And, regardless of how polarized the world turned or how occasions on the planet troubled her, she by no means gave up her hope. She continued to push for the causes she believed in.
“All of her pursuits have been critical subjects,” Wiszniak stated. “She wished to alter the world.”
Liz Sauchelli may be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
