for love of Charlotte
Forty-seven or so years, nearly half a century ago, Father Bob and Charlotte Battin were called to Panama City to lead Holy Nativity, and to become the spiritual backbone of our community.
It was the early 1970s, Linda and I were away in our Navy career; my brother and sister were grown and gone, living far away; and my parents were rattling around alone in our huge old family homestead on West Beach Drive.
The Battin family arrived with five daughters and needing a place to stay while they searched for a house. Our old two-story home was just right: upstairs four empty bedrooms and two full bathrooms, so my mother and father invited the Battin family to move in. And they did. I don’t know if the Battin sisters remember their weeks of living with the Wellers, but my parents loved having you, it filled the rest of their lives with happy memories, and stories of beloved little girls my parents grew to love almost as their own.
After Father Steve called and invited me to preach the homily this morning, Linda said, “Surely you will NOT tell The Diaper Story again, everybody’s heard that”. So I’m not telling it, but it’s in my homily notes that will be posted on my +Time Blog as soon as this service is over. If you don’t know The Diaper Story that I broke at Charlotte’s eightieth birthday party, you can read it on Fr Tom’s Daily Blog, accessible on Facebook or the Parish WebSite!
The Diaper Story, everyone in my family was forbidden to tell it until at least a quarter century had passed. For some weeks in 1973, the Battin family lived upstairs in the Old Weller Homestead, seven Battins, Bob and Charlotte and five daughters, two still in diapers. When they moved out my father discovered that the upstairs plumbing was stopped up and no way to get it open. When the plumbers came to dig up the plumbing, open up and install new underground pipes, they found diapers that the older Battin sisters had changed on the babies and flushed down the toilet. It was a closely guarded family secret lest Fr Bob and Charlotte be embarrassed, and I had to wait until 2011, when my mother died, before I dared tell that story!
Charlotte Battin was the ultimate gracious hostess. Summer 1984, when Linda and I moved from Pennsylvania home to Florida, Charlotte and Bob started hosting clergy gatherings at their home so we could get to know other clergy couples in the area. They were welcoming and memorable. And the scrumptious food: the Nguyens, beloved members of the Battin family, always helped Charlotte make everything perfect.
Charlotte was a dedicated, soul-winning Christian who took her faith seriously to heart. She always reminded me of Isaac Watts’ hymn
Am I a soldier of the cross,
A follow’r of the Lamb?
And shall I fear to own His cause,
Or blush to speak His name?
Charlotte Battin owned his cause, never blushed, was proud to speak the Name of Christ, share her faith in him, lead others to the Lord. Our own Ray Wishart, who years later was ordained to the Episcopal clergy from here, Ray loved to tell why he and Diane came to Holy Nativity in the first place. When Ray started teaching at Mosley High School, one of the nicest people he met there was Charlotte Battin, the guidance counselor. Charlotte asked if Ray and Diane had a church, told him about Holy Nativity, that Father Battin was the priest here, invited him to come, and said how welcome Ray and Diane would be. Ray said Charlotte was right, a warm, loving church, they found the Lord here: Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place! and Charlotte helped make it so.
Linda and I were members here from 1955, and during our Navy years, when home on leave, we came to Holy Nativity at Christmas and summer Sundays, and Charlotte always overwhelmed us with open arms of welcome and her huge beaming smile, made us feel like celebrities returning home to the Lord’s house.
Charlotte loved the Lord and she wanted you to know and love Him as she did, it was her ministry and she meant it. This gospel we just read and heard, “In my Father’s house are many mansions, I prepare a place for you,” that was Charlotte sharing her faith, making her and Father Bob’s ministry here complete, inviting and welcoming people to find Jesus at Holy Nativity. Not many people are bold enough to do that.
Charlotte Battin was an evangelist, a soldier of the Cross, a follower of the Lamb. And now Jesus, come to take her home to her mansion in His Father’s house. Don’t you know she was welcomed home with overwhelming love!
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Homily at the outdoor pavilion funeral for Charlotte Battin on Friday morning, July 24, 2020. Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City, Florida. The Rev Tom Weller.