Post 3/2025 Goshen IN. Sister-in-law Doris Mast died 12 days after her 92nd birthday. At the visitation many people remarked on how Doris was the queen of hospitality. Her memorial service took place on January 27. Fifty chairs were needed to seat her children, 12 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren.

As a youngster Doris begged her mother to invite families with children to their home for the Sunday meal. She loved company and spending Sunday afternoons with her friends. She also loved dolls, babies, and farm pets.

Doris gained profound lessons in hospitality when she and her husband William (Bill) moved to Mulberry, Indiana, for Bill to complete two years of alternative service as a conscientious objector to war. Bill worked in the laundry at the hospital in Lafayette and Doris minded their two year old son and another son born during their stay in Mulberry. Marty spent two summers helping with the household.

Being removed from her childhood home and community wore heavily on Doris. She could hardly imagine being at a distance from her mother. How she would care for two babies without her mother to lend some assistance. The members of a local church (Dunkard) proved to be a God-send. The congregation invited them with open arms, welcoming them to worship services and to homes for Sunday lunch and also some meals during the week. Their tiny home for two years had two rooms–bedroom and kitchen. Contact with church members continued throughout their lifetime. They had experienced hospitality and it became part of their DNA.

Bill working with African American people in the laundry also proved a lesson in good race relations.

Over the years on their farm in LaGrange County, Indiana, Doris and Bill raised six children and were members of Marion Mennonite Church (now Marion Christian Fellowship). Visitors and church members found a ready invitation for lunch at their home. It was not uncommon for 20 to 40 people to be fed in body and spirit.

Visit with Madge

On one of our visits to White Cloud, Michigan where father John Mishler was born and spent his early years, we would stop enroute to visit aunt Madge Mishler, widow of John’s brother Henry. On our last visit with Madge she was in memory care in a nursing home. She recognized the six of us but had trouble naming Doris. “Oh, I know who you are! You are the big mama,” Madge said.

Doris did not like that appellation. We tried to tell her that that was a term of endearment, that Madge recognized her as the matriarch of the family. Doris had nothing to do with our interpretation. The matter dropped. Nevertheless, how Doris approached and treated people showed the breadth of the “big mama” term. All were welcome at her table and in her purview. Whether a meal, a cookie and milk for grandchildren, a cinnamon roll for the postal carrier, a letter to an inmate, Doris exuded temporal and spiritual blessing.

Her interest and care of people, hospitality at the table, through letters, providing transportation for Amish neighbors, bed and breakfast for visiting relatives or strangers, showed Doris’ overflowing hospitality and love. She was the big person in the room, the one who served as Jesus served.

When I read the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-12 or Luke 6:20-26, I feel a resonance with the life Doris lived.

The Beatitudes, Matthew 5:1-12

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.  2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you  falsely on my account. 

12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the  prophets who were before you.

Love you to bits

Doris spent three years in nursing care. Last year I asked her what sermon topic she would like to hear. Her quick response was, “I’ve heard them all.” If Doris were to give the sum of what she’s heard, she’d say, “God loves you to bits. I love you to bits. Now go and do your bit.” Rest in peace, dear sister-in-law Doris.

-John