The Wednesday MOPS groups welcomes a new Mentor Mom – or really, Mentor Grandma! Mary Ruby, 85, asked to be a part of this group simply because she loves to help and be around young moms.When you ask her about her life, Mary Ruby beams: “I feel like I’ve had a wonderful life! I have felt like God has watched over me all my life.”
Born in Pueblo, Colorado, Mary feels fortunate to have had a father who was always happy, and a mother who, during the Great Depression, made “milk and bread for lunch taste good.” When Mary was three years old her family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, where they raised rabbits for food. On Sunday mornings, Mary and her sister, Clydene, would catch the trolley to go to church; then, for fun “we would buy an all-day ticket and ride the trolley all over town. One bus driver was even a ventriloquist!
Mary started nurse’s training at the University of Utah, but when her father died, she left school and went to work for a radio-tube plant as a part of the war effort of World War II. Later she worked for United Airlines in food service, then in the dispatch office, checking weather and schedules for pilots.
When a group of Pepperdine College (now Pepperdine University) students visited her area, Mary met Lowry (her future husband) “in a cherry tree!” She found he had all the qualifications for the husband she envisioned: he was a Christian, had blue eyes, and did not drink or smoke (he was only missing the dark hair…). Lowry returned to California, and he and Mary wrote to each other for 4 months. He came to visit her in December, and he proposed. They were married in the church where Mary had grown up. She was 21. .
Mary and Lowry lived all along the coast of California. They had three children; the youngest, Don, is married to CCS’ beloved PE Teacher, Cheryl Ruby.
Mary has always lived a life based on service. She has taught kids with learning disabilities, as well as working as a psychiatric technician until the age of 65. At the Campbell Church, Mary taught 4th/5th grade Bible class for 40 years! She helps lead the 2nd/3rd grade girls’ club, Tuesday morning Women’s Bible Study, and works in the CCS Resource Room every Thursday morning. In addition (and all this “in retirement”) Mary is a leader in the Seniors’ group, visits friends and is in the process of learning to use a computer.
Mary is a firm believer in living life to its fullest. At the age of 69, with her sister Clydene (age 70) Mary Ruby went…(wait for it)…bungee jumping! Shortly after losing Lowry, her husband of almost 60 years, Mary traveled to Nairobi, Kenya with a missionary group from the Campbell Church, helping the students and leaders at Made In the Streets.
Mary says about herself: “I am happy, I have things to do, I have friends. The church has always been my family. I’ve never felt I didn’t have a place to go because I’ve always felt I had it in the church. No matter where I went, it was home. I’ve always felt they were my people.”
When asked what parenting advice she would give a young mother, Mary replied: “All you can do is show the way, and they make their choices. They don’t always make the choices you want, but my mother told me you keep on teaching them. You leave them in God’s hands, and be a good example.”
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