OLAVA LOMMEN HAMMERSLAND
Spoken at her funeral Tuesday, March 13, 1979
-By Rev. Erling Hansen
There are several of us here today who have been influenced by a wonderful lady known to young and old as Olava. Olava Lommen Hammersland, who died Saturday, March 10, 1979 was a person who had faults, as we all have, but she also had many God-given talents that she used, which many of us do not use to the fullest in the life God has given to us.
Many of us here today have felt her love for her Lord Jesus Christ. She was one who sought to follow her Lord’s example as she prayed and taught the Word of God in word and deed. We of her family, as well as many others, have felt the impact of her intercessory prayers. An experience that makes us aware of our utter need of praying for one another. This I am confident, has been the experience of many others such as here at Stavanger Lutheran Church in the Sunday School classes, Luther League, and in fact, the entire congregation.
She, also, had a love for youth. This was seen in her activities and interest at the church here as well as among her many great grand-nephews and nieces. Some are here today, but if all of them could be here, I am confident that they would, without reservation, tell of the loving influence Olava had in their lives. She kept a steady correspondence with her nephew and nieces and their families. When her handwriting became shaky so that it was difficult to write, and for us to read, this did not show itself in pessimism or complaining, but in her love for life she simply typed her letters and notes to us. An example of her faithfulness to many things and people.
Her notes and cards were alert to the times in which she lived. Some of her relatives and friends might have differed with her opinions, especially in politics and how the country should be run, but she had a love for her country and she expressed it and prayed for it. Each of us may have kept some of her humorous clippings or cartoons clipped from newspapers and magazines that she read in great detail keeping her knowledgeable on many events of the past as well as on the contemporary scene. These experiences also made us realize that she had a love for knowledge, study and learning. Often she visited with her brother-in-law, Harold Hammersland, Sr. and talked politics and current events. I would listen in, but often missed their discussion as she spoke in a different Norwegian dialect that I had difficulty understanding. It wasn’t that they wanted to hide something from anyone, but simply their intent interest in current events brought them back to their native language.
In 1910 she was graduated from Lutheran Normal School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and attended the 50th anniversary of her class in 1960 as well as an enjoyable visit later on. Her love for education showed itself in encouraging her nephew and nieces, in more ways than one, to further their education.
She had a love for Christian living. You could tell this in her words, and actions that she was one of the many saints of the Christian church. Not without fault or one who walked about with a pious, solemn look with an imaginary halo over her head, as some persons picture saints, but in the Biblical sense as expressed in the words of the Apostle Paul who wrote to the saints in various congregations – namely people who though sinful are forgiven by the grace of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and as forgiven sinners, namely a part of the communion of saints, lived by the grace of God. Yes, she was, you could say, a gracious lady.
All of her life was involved with others; young in spirit, a love for learning and living the Gospel. In our family, as well as the larger family of God known as the congregations where she was a member, I am confident we have been touched by her love for her Lord, her love for youth, her love for education, and her love for people with whom she came in contact, and so being touched as she has touched us in many ways, and we who have been fortunate to have her pass our way, we consider ourselves the richer for her life in ours. We have all been given the opportunity now to continue in our daily life to show that love to others as she passed it on to us – she whom we called OLAVA!