She Hath Done What She Could

 

Recently, as I was meditating on a familiar story from the Gospel of Mark, the one about a woman anointing the head of Jesus with expensive ointment, I read these familiar words which is the title of this blog post - She Hath Done What She Could (King James version).  The words were familiar from another context though, not from the Biblical story in Mark 14:3-9.  I just had not taken note of this phrase before in the gospel story.  Here is the story: 

And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the Leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, "why was the ointment wasted like that?  For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor." And they scolded her.  But Jesus said, "Leave her alone.  Why do you trouble her?  She has done a beautiful thing to me.  For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them.  But you will not always have me.  She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial.  And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her."

In my recent book, “Interesting Experiences: Stories from the Seasons of My Life”, I wrote about one of my ancestors who is buried in the cemetery surrounding my home church, Holden Lutheran, near Kenyon, Minnesota.  Her name is Sister Anna Huseth.    Here is her story:

Anna was born in 1892, only about 2 miles from the farm where I grew up in rural Kenyon. She graduated from Kenyon High School, attended St Olaf College for three years and later enrolled at Lutheran Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing in Chicago, graduating in 1917.  After serving as a nurse at St Olaf College during the influenza epidemic in 1918 she was consecrated as a deaconess, and in 1919 sent to Teller, Alaska, where she assumed the duties of matron at the orphanage for Inupiaq children at the Brevig Memorial Mission.  Next, she responded to a call from the Eskimo village of Igloo where her services were sorely needed.  The nearest doctor was 100 miles away to the south.

Sister Anna became the village doctor and nurse, and in that role, did much traveling by dog sled. During the first two winters she traveled more than a thousand miles in this manner, often alone.

There were serious emergencies for the doctor-nurse-missionary.   Sister Anna helped bring many babies into the world.  There were epidemics of influenza which laid a whole village low. This deaconess sister moved from village to village and cabin to cabin, alleviating pain and bringing comfort to the suffering.

After four years in that remote area, she was placed in charge of the orphanage at Teller.  Here she was stationed when Roald Amundsen, the famed explorer, landed the dirigible Norge after his trans-polar flight. Amundsen was so impressed with her work that he later spoke of her as the “Heroine of the North”.

Sister Anna’s next objective was the establishment of a mission station at Shismaref, a settlement far to the North. She returned to Chicago in 1928 to raise support for this work and was planning her return to Alaska when she was stricken with a heart ailment and died in April 1929 at age 37.  She is buried in Holden Cemetery, in the community where she was born, her grave amidst many others of the Aaker family. 

Now, when we visit the graves of my ancestors in the cemetery we always pass by Anna’s grave and read the inscription on her gravestone, almost illegible after all these years. 

That old headstone has these words:

Sister Anna Huseth – 1892 - 1929

And then these interesting and poignant words:

“She Hath Done What She Could”

Did she do all she aspired to do with her life? No, but she did what she could with the time she had. And she served well, which is the calling of a deaconess.

Have you ever thought about what you would like to have etched on your gravestone?  Indeed, that would be a good summary statement about a well lived life, a life of service.  Anna’s was a life in service to others in the name of Jesus.  I didn’t personally know Anna Huseth, of course, but I have been inspired by her story. 

I have long wondered where those words came from, and now I know.