Shirley Rugh Maxwell's Obituary
SHIRLEY RUGH BILLS (MAXWELL) Shirley Rugh Bills was born July 23, 1929 in Houston, Texas to Renzie and Mary Bills. She would have one younger sibling, Jack Kenneth Bills. Shirley graduated from Lamar High School and then attended a local business school where she would meet her future husband, Virgil Newton Maxwell, only recently returned from service in World War II. They soon fell in love and in 1948 they were married in Houston at Central Church of Christ–Shirley was 18 years old. A few years later, Shirley would lose her brother to cancer. After a series of miscarriages, Shirley and Virgil were blessed with three sons, Duane, Jack, and Michael. The family lived in Houston until 1978 when they moved to Garland, Texas, after Virgil accepted a position as administrator at the Christian Care Center in Mesquite. Shirley and Virgil would live at 1709 Patton in Garland for almost a quarter of a century, until Virgil’s death in 2003. Shirley and Vigil lived as husband and wife for 54 years, sharing times of great sadness and of great joy together. Over these years they would suffer the loss of both parents and of several siblings, yet they would also delight in seeing their sons married to three wonderful Christian women, Brenda, Jill, and Lisa, and eventually relish the arrival of five grandchildren: Sarah, Amanda, Matthew, Audrey, and Jacqueline. In the early hours of January 3, 2003 Shirley unexpectedly lost her husband and constant companion of so many years. This was an extremely difficult time for her; her health was already very poor and she would now need professional institutional nursing care if she were to make it though this period of terrible transition in her life. There was much worry and concern for her as she took up residence at Rockwall Nursing Center. Yet this concern was slowly replaced by wonder, awe, and thanksgiving as she accompanied her slowly improving health with a personal mission to look beyond herself and encourage those around her; where others might wallow in self-pity she discovered opportunity, for she was now able to reach out to others to a degree that she had not been able for years. By God’s grace she had discovered a new calling–a kind of personal ministry. Whom but God could have foreseen that, now in her mid-seventies, Shirley Maxwell’s role in life would expand far beyond that of the good wife, loving mother, and doting grandmother to that of comforter and friend to so many others in need. Over what would become almost five years, she lived at several nursing institutions and her last years in a beautiful assisted living environment of which she was very proud. Over this period she would make friends and provide comfort–via a smile or kind word–to countless residents, as well as staff and other caregivers. She would become an inspiration to her entire family, showing by example how to live with joy in both good times and bad, and how to have the eyes of Jesus, always open to the pain of others. Shirley could not do much physically, bound to her wheelchair by weight and physical disability, but she could accomplish so much good through a friendly greeting or expression of concern to those lives she touched each day. In late October she would attend the wedding of her only grandson in Abilene, Texas. This was something that she had looked forward to for some time, determined to be there, if only by sheer power of will. Sadly however, in the recent weeks following this event, her general health deteriorated quickly, resulting in her recent death at 78 years of age. Shirley Maxwell was a woman that loved her parents, her husband and her family. She loved with a light that burned steadily and without falter. But it was near her life’s end that her torch burned the brightest, for it was then that she loved not just her neighbor but every stranger as herself. Our prayer is that when called to do so, at whatever point in our lives that may be, we too will each hold this torch as high and as well as did she. The family
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