Bern Nadette Stanis sharing at 11:15 service photo: Richard Smalls
On Sunday, October the 20th, we were delighted to welcome Bern Nadette Stanis to Highland Park. If you watched Good Times in the 70’s, or in reruns in the last decades, you will remember her as Thelma. Thelma was one of my favorite characters on the show. I always wanted to see what she was wearing. I was excited when she got engaged to the football player. I thought she would have the life she always wanted. Then, I was upset when her fiancé fell and the injury kept him from making the team. Thelma married him anyway, and it seemed that her life remained pretty much the same. I was always rooting for Thelma, and her family, to have happy and problem free good times. What can I say, I was a young viewer and this was prior to my understanding of the necessity of tension in a drama.
Today, Bern Nadette Stanis is as lovely as when she played Thelma, and she has a testimony to share. At our 7:30 and 11:15 services, she spoke about the eight years she spent as her mother’s caretaker. Her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and Bern Nadette Stanis is grateful for the time she was able to care for her mother. The deep love Bern Nadette has for her mother was obvious as she shared about the night in the hospital when her mother departed her earthly vessel. The Last Night; A Caregiver’s Journey Through Transition and Beyond is the book written by Bern Nadette Stanis about the close relationship she shared with her mother. The book is beautiful as it reveals the lessons Bern Nadette’s mother taught her, her experience as a sitcom star and her experience as her mother’s caregiver. Click here to purchase a copy and read more about Bern Nadette Stanis.
Bern Nadette Stanis and young Henry Davis photo: Anthony Moore