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March 27, 2012

The story is told of a brave soul who dared to say of one straying child, "Nine out

of ten isn't bad, Bebs." 

Her response, "I will not let go, I will pray until the wayward come home, until my

last breath"

Thats exactly what she did. If you have her blood in your veins, she died praying

for you.

So much to be thankful for. 

November 24, 2011

  Praise the lord

we are blessed through her prayer ministry

thousands of pepole been  Blessed through her son chris peterson

we are greatfull to praying mothers

Thanks

pastor prasad rao

 

The Eulogy By Beryl Holmes

March 26, 2011

Beryl Violet Job was born BERYL VIOLET BANTON on July 22nd 1918, the ninth child and the seventh daughter of parents GRACE and THOMAS EDWARD BANTON.  She was born in South Australia at a small private hospital in Royston Park.  At that time the family lived in Arthur Street Payneham.  Her father was apparently not overjoyed at the arrival of No 7 daughter and on visiting the hospital merely said “Hmm another girl Grace?”

How right he was!  It was indeed another girl.  And what a girl she turned out to be!

 

Beryl (who I’ll now refer to as mum to avoid confusion) had a fairly happy early childhood.  She was doted on by her many older siblings, two of whom were responsible for naming her.

 

It was a busy household with the large number of children all at various stages.  Mum’s father was often absent.  Mum always felt very close to her Mother, a Godly woman with a Salvation Army heritage.  Mum’s early memories of her mother included seeing her early each morning with her Bible and Hymn book.  She watched as her Mother read, prayed, and sang a hymn.  Poverty and hardship were facts of life in a household where the breadwinner came and went and battled an alcohol problem.  In the midst of all this mum witnessed a strong, consistent life of faith lived before her eyes every day.  The impact of those early impressions perhaps set the tone for mum’s later life….she had seen godliness close up.

 

From the ages of four to eleven, the family lived in a home owned by Mum’s older brother Bert in Norwood Parade.  Mum attended the Kensington Gardens Primary School, and had many stories to tell of herself, her sister Heather and other school kids climbing the trees in what is now Glynburn Road, and of playing basketball against teams from neighbouring schools.  For that period Mum’s home life was stable.  She was a good student. 

 

Things became a bit chaotic again and the family situation changed.  Mum changed schools often during the next five years.  She was a shy child and found making a new start difficult. During  this time she attended Nailsworth Primary, Colonel Light Gardens School,  two separate short stints at a school in Cessnock NSW, then completed her schooling at Flinders Street Primary at age fourteen.

 

The shifts to Cessnock were in order to be with her elder brother Bert who was a preacher there.  Mum loved her big brother dearly and seeing him minister in the power of the  Holy Spirit made a huge and lasting impression on Mum.

 

Returning to Adelaide, Mum’s spiritual life progressed.  She gave her life to Jesus and was baptized in the Holy Spirit at age eleven, then was was baptized in water at Brighton Beach shortly after. As she grew up, Mum was involved in church life, Sunday school, prayer meetings, young people’s meetings, open air meetings, choirs, orchestras.  (No, not with the ukulele.  In the orchestra she played violin)  She was busy and happy.

 

She left school at age fourteen, even though she’d entertained hopes of being a school teacher.  It was the Depression era, social welfare was minimal so Mum worked to support herself and her mother.  They lived in a variety of low-cost accommodation or with relatives or friends.

 

Mum gained employment as a waitress.  This was in the days when customer orders were memorized, no carrying notepads. When customers paid their bills Mum handled the money and their change  without the aid of a calculator.  Inaccuracy could cost her her job.  Mum worked in Adelaide in Foy and Gibson in the dining room, then in a light lunch café in Gresham Street.

 

At around the age of fifteen, Mum had a good friend at church named Gracie Bowen – who had a cousin named Chris Peterson.  Mum was very young but was a bit impressed by this eighteen year old who was very sober, very sensible and very good looking!  Some special church meetings were scheduled for the country area south of the city where Chris lived.  Mum with her friend Grace and Grace’s cousin Chris were traveling to the church in Chris’s horse and cart.  Chris was intending to show how well his horse could behave even without him controlling it with the reins but the horse stumbled, the girls were tipped out of the cart.  No harm done.  Grace was still able to play piano at the meeting and Mum always blamed the horse!

 

 

 

 

Mum and her Mother moved to Melbourne where Mum first worked at the Elizabethan Tea Room.  She was offered – but she refused – the position of head waitress at the Windsor Hotel in Spring Street.  She refused the position because the establishment sold liquor and Mum had promised her mother she would never work where liquor was sold.  Alcohol had caused so much heartbreak in Mum’s home and been the downfall of her Dad, that Mum had no hesitation in keeping her promise. While in Melbourne Mum also worked in the cafeteria in Myers. She remembered the funeral of Sidney Meyer which occurred during the time Mum was working there.

 

Returning to Adelaide, Mum was employed at the Grosvenor in the Dining Room. Mum recalled walking down the steps of the Grosvenor in September 1939 to hear the newsboys hollering “Hitler Declares War”. World War 2 had begun.

 

Mum met up again with Chris Peterson and while Mum and her mother were living in North Adelaide, Beryl Banton and Chris Peterson were engaged.  Mum then spent the summer working at the Pipiriki Guest House in Victor Harbor prior to marrying Chris on February 20th 1940.  They married in Adelaide at the registry office and had a morning tea in the roof top garden of Moore’s in Victoria Square.

Even though Mum was the youngest in her family and vowed she was never “clucky” over other people’s babies, she sure loved her own as they came along.  She had been taught by her Mother and she taught us never to set our heart on a boy or a girl, because God would send what was right.  God did a lot of sending over the following years. Mum had babies in 1941, 1942, 1943, 1945, 1947, 1950, 1953, 1954, 1957, 1961.

 

In the midst of all this activity, in 1951, Mum and Dad and six little South Aussies aged between one and ten moved to Western Australia to a piece of land near Esperance.  Dad built a shed on it and there we lived.  Mum ran a household for years without electricity, heating, cooling, running water, even without flooring.  Pretty soon the little West Aussies started to arrive – four of them.  Mum’s life was incredibly busy, she faced hardships we could hardly imagine.  Everyone learned to work hard, discipline was strict (for those who played up!)

 

A special and rare treat was when we were allowed to stay up and Mum got out the banjo and we had a sing song in the light of a flickering Tilley lamp.  Later down the track we had occasional then frequent visitors who liked to sing too.  Guitars and ukuleles proliferated. And Mum was brilliant.  She could tune anything up, knew what key every song was in, could tell us what chord to change to while she did about fifteen different jobs all at once.  She was the inventor of multi-tasking!

 

As the older children left home, some drifted into traps that Satan sets for the unwary or the rebellious.  Mum and Dad hit a new high in their prayer life as they claimed back their children from Satan’s clutches. Some of us younger kids would fall asleep to the sound of Mum and Dad praying their prodigals home to Jesus.  God answered their prayers and we will be eternally grateful to Him and to our Mum and Dad.

 

The older kids, once soundly converted, were in marrying mode.  Between June 1968 and Sept 1971 Mum’s first six kids were married. So Mum embraced her knew role as mother-in-law.  She had a pretty fair idea of what a good mother-in-law needed to be – not nosy or interfering, always encouraging, helpful, practical, wise.  I quote here an insightful son-in-law who said of Mum “If  all mothers-in-law were like Mum, this world would be a better place”. Yep he got that right.

 

Sadly Mum lost her dear prayer partner and husband Chris Peterson in 1971, becoming a widow at age 52.  She still had two kids at school, two kids working and a daughter about to marry.  She had three little grandchildren.  Within a year of Dad’s death she prayerfully moved her children over to Adelaide, living in Greenacres, fellowshipping at Klemzig AOG, actively and happily serving God, loving His people, hospitable, busy, always prayerful.

 

In this environment, her younger children grew up, married and Mum then spent a number of years in Whyalla living with Beth and Peter and their children.  There she continued to be a blessing, making friends and enjoying fellowship there.

 

 

 

 

On returning to Adelaide, Mum was blessed to meet up with an old friend Arthur Job whose late wife had been a friend and work-mate of Mum’s.  Arthur played the mandolin and shared Mum’s interest in music and singing.  They were faithful, prayerful people and they married in 1988.

Dear Arthur Job was  an absolute treasure.  Suddenly surrounded by scores of little kids calling him Grandpa, he took it all in his stride and took them all to his heart. For the majority of Mum’s grandchildren, Grandpa Job was the only grandpa they’d known.  How sad for Mum and all the family when in July 1997, Arthur Job went to be with the Lord.

 

Mum recovered from her loss giving thanks for happy memories. She concentrated on her prayer life. I believe she was a force to be reckoned with as she went into battle for the next generation – the grandkids and then the great grandkids.

 

She also developed a new passion – singing to old people in Nursing Homes. Many of the residents were years younger than herself.  She would go with her dear boy Alf and was always so happy when she’d return, saying how very fulfilled she felt.  She played the Ukulele, Alf played guitar.  Mum loved to sing and had a fine alto voice.  She continued to visit Helping Hand at Parafield Gardens until a year or so ago.

When Nursing Home regulations required all volunteers to be police checked, Mum was more than happy to comply so I took her to the Holden Hill Police Station to lodge her application.  The guy behind the desk looked mildly amused.

 

In 2003, Mum was having some health issues.  In time, Graeme and I invited Mum to make her home with us.  After prayer and thought Mum moved in.  She continued to minister with Alf at Nursing Homes, continued to be a blessing at her local church, continued to pray for family needs, for the conversion to Jesus Christ of her straying grandchildren.  If Mum told you she’d be praying for you she didn’t walk off and forget.  She really prayed.

 

She loved God’s Word.  She got a satellite dish installed on the roof so she could watch Christian TV programs. She loved good preaching.  She loved going out for coffees, she loved Macca’s fillet of fish, she loved visiting her grandkids and great grandkids. 

She loved the little ones.

 

 

 

 

 

Mum was admitted to the Ashford Hospital on Feb 21st 2011. That was 71years and 1 day after she had married Dad.  Her family and many friends visited her there and we had some good times, singing old songs that Mum had taught us when we were little kids.  If  she wasn’t keen on a particular song, she’d say  “Come on, what else have you got?”  She sang some of her sweet harmonies, beating time with her hand or tapping her toes.  Woe betide the brave soul who missed a chord change or got the tune wrong. 

 

But she’d finished her course and Jesus called her home at 2:15am on Monday 21st March 2011.

 

 

 

 

 

When Mum was a young mother living a very tough existence, her Mother Grace Banton used to write exercise books full of encouraging instruction and send the books to Mum.  They contained little poems, devotional readings, words of songs, Bible verses, all hand written.  She also wrote Mum letters.  And always across the bottom of her letters she wrote these words

 

“Keep Singing Beryl”

 

I reckon that’s exactly what Mum is doing right now!

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