Mom - the rest of the story

Berneice Juanita Hanks Ferguson was born on May 14, 1917 and went home to be with the one who created her on December 19, 2008.  Just in time to celebrate Jesus’ birthday with Jesus!  She was born to John Earl and Flossie Mae Hanks as their second child.  She was the first daughter out of 11 children, however, the girls were the “runts” of the litter, so to speak.  Her sisters died at age 2, 7 and the youngest of all the children, her beloved sister, Jane, died at 24. 

Because the girls were not the healthiest, the boys took very good care of their sister.  By the time Berneice entered high school she was the only living sister and the boys would walk in front of her to block the wind from getting to her when it was cold and windy. 

When she was 16 years old she became too ill to return to school so, with only having completed 2 weeks in the 10^th grade, she was forced to drop out of school.  Shortly after she dropped out of school she entered Simpson Memorial, a 10 bed hospital with a 5 bed men’s ward and a 5 bed women’s ward, which is now one of the oldest buildings on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor.  Simpson Memorial was a “teaching hospital” so one day the doctor at Simpson called her doctor in Muskegon and said he didn’t feel she was going to live and they had a doctor who needed training in removing a spleen.  The doctor in Muskegon had just read about a newly identified disease called pernicious anemia and thought many of the symptoms were the same.  Problem was, it was usually found only in the elderly.  The doctor in Muskegon would not allow for the removal of the spleen and asked for them to begin feeding her cakes of “brewers yeast” many times a day.  In the end, it proved she was one of the youngest identified with the disease.  Berneice spent a year and a half in the hospital and had to learn to walk again, that is how sick she was.  Returning home still meant a monthly trip back and forth to Simpson Memorial for a liver shot that helped her to recover.  Her parents had to rely on the help of someone else for transportation to the hospital approximately 6 hours away. There weren’t highways or even good roads at that time and it was during the depression where there was gas rationing however, one man came to the help of her parents, he was the father of Jimmie Bakker, who later founded the PTL network.  Many times Berneice talked about animal testing for drugs and medical research.  She felt it was very necessary.  Simpson Memorial Institute is still on the campus of U of M.

Unable to return to school due to her age, she began work at the button factory where she met Max Ferguson.  For months he followed her around asked her every day to marry him.  Finally her Mother told her to marry him so she could get rid of him occasionally.  She finally married him on August 14.  They had 5 healthy daughters within the next 20+ years.  The last was born 8 months after the death of Max.  Her faith is what carried her through the tough times of being a widow.  Her girls were ages 19, 11, 9, 1 and she was pregnant plus 44 years old herself when she lost her husband.  She said she knew social security wouldn’t be enough to raise her girls so she came up with a plan. She took all of the insurance money she received, which wasn’t much, and went to the Muskegon Business College to ask what she could do to go to college.  She took the GED test and used all the insurance she had received to pay for the first term of college and purchase her books.  Berneice said she had faith that God would provide the education she needed. Provide HE did!  The same disease that sidelined her from school at 16 years old was the catalyst that gave her the much needed education.  This incurable blood disease allowed her to go to school and paid for her books.  She completed her education in her late 40’s and received a “junior accounting” degree – with honors.  She then became a payroll accountant at Brenneman Curtain Roll Company where they made roller shades.  She worked there and raised her daughters.  She was tireless!  She went to tons of events – PTA meetings, parent teacher conferences, hauled the girls to after school activities, cooked, cleaned, washed hundreds of loads of laundry and made many of the clothes the girls wore.  All the while she maintained a home that put God first.  In the spring of 1968 she fulfilled a dream and she built a new home on the property that she and Max had purchased so many years before.  It was right next to her parents’ home. So the four daughters still at home moved the long distance of one block to live next to their grandparents’ home.  When you hear the scripture “Honor your Father and Mother that your days may be long upon the earth” think of Berneice.  She spent years caring for them and them for her.  God granted her 91 years on earth and her daughter would tell you it was because of God’s promise. 



May 1983



The story of school is not over for Berneice.  After she retired from her company, she felt she lacked one important thing, a real high school diploma.  So Berneice went back to night school and received her high school diploma on May 11, 1983, after having a college degree for 20 years.

Christmas 1960

Holidays were a treasure as the girls grew up.  It never began very early because they had to wait for Grandma and Grandpa to arrive.  They would open gifts one at a time.  They would have breakfast and then Grandma and Grandpa went home to begin preparing the family feast for later in the day.  In just a few hours all of Berneice’s brothers and their families would descend upon the house.  The 7 brothers and Berneice produced 54 grandchildren and Christmas and Easter were the days everyone went to Grandma’s and Grandpa’s house.  It was a memorable occasion of card games and Pick up Sticks.  In the summer there was the Hanks/Garvey family reunion on the last Sunday in July.    
This is a huge reunion that still goes on every year.

There was a fun side to Berneice.  In 1967 she volunteered to take the Future Homemakers of America Club to Washington, DC.  She and the girls stayed in a mansion in McLean Virginia owned by the brother of Julie’s home economics teacher.  They lived about 2 miles from Robert Kennedy’s home.  One day they all went to the Kennedy home to gawk.  You used to see pictures of Jackie Kennedy riding horses and jumping fences.  This was the home where the pictures were taken.  Berneice suggested that they should walk up to the door. The worst that could happen is someone telling them to stop.  She was right.  They only got about 10 feet past the gate before there were people flooding out of the house to say they were trespassing.  Berneice really just wanted to get a close up look at the door. The Kennedy’s had a large white house with black shutters and a very red front door.  A year later when she built her little ranch style house, it was a white house with black shutters and as long as she lived there, it had a very red front door.  The next year Bobby Kennedy was assassinated.

Another favorite story happened the day after the graduation open house for her youngest daughter Lisa’s graduation from high school.  Berneice suggested inviting some friends to have a picnic with the leftovers from the party.  So on Sunday they all went to the park.  There were 4 children under the age of 5 and they loved playing on the playground.  The kids really wanted to use the monkey bars.  After watching them try, she decided she would teach them.  She climbed up, hung there, swung to the first rung, then the second rung and then oops, the third rung slipped out of her hands and down she went and hurt her ankle.  When the doctor in the emergency room came in to see her he said “ Berneice, what happened?”  Her answer was “none of your business”.  He said “I need to know how this happened so I can help fix it.”  She wasn’t about to budge.  She said “ I don’t have to tell you anything – just fix it”  Berneice got her “feisty” side from her Mother although it was her father who was still able to walk on stilts at age 70. 

Berneice encouraged her girls to be whatever they wanted.  She was a great person who loved math and encouraged her girls to be good at math.  On trips she would take notebook paper, turn it sideways so the lines were vertical and then fill the space between the lines with numbers and have the girls add the numbers out loud in the car.  The girls never counted license plates or cows or horses on trips – they added!  Out loud, they added.  They were encouraged to play musical instruments, if they would like.  Julie was asked when she was in kindergarten if she would like to learn to play the piano or the accordion.  The music teacher lived about 5 houses down the street.  She chose the accordion because she didn’t know how she could carry the piano down the street.  Eventually she took up the clarinet because it was lighter than either of the other two.

A few years ago Berneice began showing signs of dementia.  When your parent begins to forget things you can get frustrated and make them frustrated, or you can view it as entertainment.  To Mike and Julie it was entertainment.  When Berneice began to realize she was having a problem she expressed her concern.  Julie explained it this way to her – when you are up in years you have a lot of “stuff” crammed in your brain – eventually some of it is bound to leak out of your ears.  Since the old stuff is on the bottom, the new stuff leaks out.  It was a good analogy for her and one she could understand.  But entertaining it was – One day she came out to the kitchen and announced that Matlock had retired.  Julie asked why she felt a TV character had retired.  She said he wasn’t on her TV at the times he used to be.  Julie said he is on at 5 a.m. when she woke up early.  She replied, to her delight “That’s it, he is working third shift” Berneice loved Andy Griffith and enjoyed both of his shows- Matlock and The Andy Griffith Show.  The family got her lots of DVDs of The Andy Griffith show.  Holly would go in and start a 3 episode DVD for her Grandma.  She would set it to repeat.  That meant that there were 6 times you would hear the whistling theme song each time the DVD repeated.  Have you ever wondered how many times you can hear the whistling theme song before you want to pull your hair out?  Ask Mike, Julie or Holly and they can tell you.  

Berneice, Joan and Lawrence
on her last trip to Michigan

Each year she would travel home to her beloved Michigan to see her brothers and to have Red Haven peaches.  While she was gone, Mike had to take up the slack of some of the things Berneice did nightly.  She was a fan of Diagnosis Murder and each night she would come into the family room at 9:00 and announce that Diagnosis Murder is on channel 17.  So for the time she would be back in Michigan, Mike would announce every night at 9:00 and that Diagnosis Murder was on channel 17.  He was always such a help.

There were many things Berneice loved and many of them were fruits from Michigan.  Strawberries, Peaches, Raspberries, Pears and Apples.  She raised her children with home canned fruits.  They all learned to can food, even if they didn’t want to.  They loved to eat the home canned fruit, though.  Every time she purchased apples in Florida there were prerequisites that had to be followed in bringing them home from the store.  First of all, nobody touched her apples but her and they must state they were Michigan apples.  Every cashier received a proper education in handling apples!  She never allowed the cashier to put them on the scale, she did it herself and then gently put them back in the cart.  If an apple rolled off the counter at home, it must be eaten immediately before it bruised.

Berneice enjoyed babysitting after she moved to Florida.  She helped rear the children of two families the Pickles and the Freemans.  Five children that didn’t have a grandma in Florida.  The children called her Grandma Neice, a name her Grandson, Holden, still calls her.  Holden and Grandma Neice would sit together in her chair or out in the family room and read books and newspapers together.

One of Julie’s friends said that her Mom use to say it was best to find a parking space where you could just pull through so you were headed out front-wise when you were ready to leave the space.  It saved gas to not have to back out then pull forward.  Well Berneice used all the gas that was saved by her friends Mother.  Berneice couldn’t park more than 4 spaces from the door so she would circle and circle around the parking lot until she found a space close to the door.



One of only 2 pictures
of all 5 girls - 1983



One thing for sure, she loved her girls.  Each one was unique and different from the others. 

Sandy was adventurous and moved away from Michigan before she was 20.  Berneice got to visit Alaska because her daughter lived there. Sandy had 1 daughter, Cherie Lisa and one son, Lee (Leepie), who died when he was 2 ½ years old.  Cherie Lisa had 4 children and is now a grandmother herself making Berneice a great-great-grandmother.

Julie was glue.  She always held her Mother and the girls together.  Berneice lived with Mike and Julie for many years in Florida.  They also lived next door to her in Michigan.  While Berneice didn’t give birth to Mike, you could have no doubt that she was his Mom.  He took such loving care of her right from the minute he married Berneice’s daughter.  Julie and Mike have 2 daughters, Holly and Melissa.  Missy has two sons, Holden, and Max who was born 3 months after she passed away and         named after Missy's grandfather.

Ranae was the quieter one.  Ranae and her husband Gary still live in Michigan where she has one son, Greg, and one daughter, D’Ann.  Ranae is grandmother to one grandson, Steven.

Jane is the feisty one.  She is very competent and a type A personality.  She is very outgoing and tells it like it is.  She and Ron have one daughter, Alex.  (Since this was originally written, Jane’s beloved husband, Ron, passed away)  Jane was ill the year she had Alex and her Mom was there for weeks helping out and staying with their family. Loving every minute of it.

Mary Lisa is the youngest of the family and works very hard.  She loves flowers and frogs.  Lisa has one son, Andy, and is grandmother to one grandson, Alexander.  When Andy was born, Mom helped out any and every chance she could.  Berneice loved to give her grandbabies their first bath and Andy was the youngest of her grandchildren.  The last grandchild to be given the Grandma bath. 

There are many things she tried to instill in her daughters and the big one was a love of the Lord.  Her parents were charter members of Wayside Chapel, the same church where she raised her girls.  Wayside Chapel became Wayside Baptist and then was renamed Mona Shores Baptist, the church she still attended whenever she made her trips to Muskegon. While she loved the church she raised her children in, she also loved the contemporary church she attended here in Tampa.  Her favorite music was the old hymns but she loved to clap along and smiled at the music at Grace, which is much different from the old hymns.  The music she is enjoying now must be the best! There is probably a group of angels singing a cross between “The Old Rugged Cross”, “Stomp” and “Praise Party”.  By far, the most important part of her life was church, the music didn’t matter, the message was what mattered.  She loved to go to church and had a rule with her girls; if you are too sick to go to church, you are too sick to go anywhere else.  She believed in the scriptures and the comfort and direction they provide. She loved spending time on her knees and prayed for strength to take her through the teen years of five daughters.  Obviously she survived the years with God’s help. 

A few days before she passed away there was a question as why God didn’t take Berneice home sooner.  Mike said they must be putting up a little more crown molding on her mansion. He was right. 

Berneice loved the scripture from Psalm 23 and the words in The Message version capture her trust in God.

Psalm 23 (The Message)

 1-3 God, my shepherd! I don't need a thing.
   You have bedded me down in lush meadows,
      you find me quiet pools to drink from.
   True to your word,
      you let me catch my breath
      and send me in the right direction.

 4 Even when the way goes through
      Death Valley,
   I'm not afraid
      when you walk at my side.
   Your trusty shepherd's crook
      makes me feel secure.

 5 You serve me a six-course dinner
      right in front of my enemies.
   You revive my drooping head;
      my cup brims with blessing.

 6 Your beauty and love chase after me
      every day of my life.
   I'm back home in the house of God
      for the rest of my life.

Well, the mansion was made ready and Berneice is now enjoying walking on streets of gold without her walker or wheelchair.  She knows the names of her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and great-great grandchildren.  She is now with her Husband, Mom, Dad, sisters, brothers and friends she has known throughout her life and had gone home before her. She remembers them and they are having a huge reunion.  She always loved the Hanks/Garvey reunion. The feast includes her Aunt Margaret’s baked beans and all the Michigan Red Haven Peaches, Strawberries, Raspberries, Pears, concord grapes, watermelon and musk melon she can eat.  After all, God serves only the best at His table.