Retiring Williams offered personal insight for those facing life’s challenges
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff writer
For 38 years, Larry Williams has heard the call of God.
“It might even go back a little bit further than that,” Larry explained, taking the occasion of his retirement as chaplain at Aurora Memorial Hospital of Burlington to look back on his career.
After 12-1/2 years at the hospital – ministering to families tossed into crisis by medical challenges – Williams’ reasons for retiring are personal. His wife, Jennie, is fighting terminal cancer – something he’d dealt with in others often. But neither Williams is alone in the fight.
“During the time Jennie’s been fighting cancer, we’ve had the support of (not just) the Burlington community, but all the surrounding communities,” Larry said. “It’s crossed all denominational lines.”
Six years ago, Jennie was diagnosed with breast cancer. Three weeks after the diagnosis, Jennie’s cancer was determined to be metastatic, having traveled to her hip. She was given six months to live.
“I’m a strong believer in my faith,” Jennie said. “I didn’t cry about it, and I didn’t whine about it.
“I just trusted God to help me get through, for my family’s sake.”
New medical treatments and Jennie’s faith have helped carry her through the last six years.
“I give credit to God and a great medical team,” she said. “And the community has prayed for me. There are so many churches that have prayed for me.”
A special insight
For Larry, the experience has provided a special insight to the challenges facing the people he ministers to at the hospital.
It has been a fulfilling ride he couldn’t have predicted when he took the leap of faith years ago.
“Both my wife (Jennie) and I worked for Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals. We’d both been there about 10 years, and God called us both into the ministry at the same time.”
“I believe when he calls a married man, he calls the wife to be in the ministry as well,” he added. “I believe the success of my ministry is because of my wife. She has stood by me 100 percent.”
The two resigned their positions at Eli Lilly, sold their brand-new home – and moved to Iowa, where Larry got his Bachelor of Science in Theology and Bible at Faith Baptist Bible College and Seminary.
Since then, Larry has been ministering in six different communities. He has pastored four churches, and until last week, served as the chaplain at the hospital.
In his years at Memorial Hospital – plus his time in the community at various churches – his calling has not been a job. It’s been his life. He said as much when he interviewed for the job at the hospital.
“First of all, I felt this was a calling of God to be a chaplain,” Larry said. “I would look at this to be a ministry, not a job.
“And that’s what it’s been for 12 years.”
A strong bond
Innumerable evenings were spent at the hospital (Larry would not shut off his pager), prayers and faith in God created a bond with the hospital community that was not just for Larry, but for his family as well.
“They’ve just loved him,” Jennie said. “I’m a part of him, and they’ve just given us their prayer support.”
That bond – forged through belief, faith and compassion – turned into a great example of both giving and receiving. Larry’s devotion to the hospital and to those he worked with has come back in the true spirit of “pay it forward.”
“I’ve got a good rapport with the doctors and the staff, and the volunteers,” Larry said. “And that came because of a lot of hard, caring, compassionate ministry that I’ve offered.”
Larry’s journey as a chaplain and Jennie’s journey as a cancer survivor have gone hand-in-hand for much of the past six years. Three weeks after the initial diagnosis and surgery, Jennie and Larry were in Mexico on a recuperative vacation. At that point, she had been told she was cancer-free.
The two were walking on a cobblestone street when Jennie twisted her leg and fell. Taken to a hospital in Mexico, Jennie was given three different diagnoses in three hours. Larry didn’t want the surgery to be performed in Mexico, but the cost to airlift her back to the states was prohibitive – $30,000.
The couple’s credit card company agreed to accept the charges for the bill, and Jennie came back home for surgery. At that point, doctors found out that the cancer had spread throughout her body, eaten away at her hip and pelvis. Doctors at that point gave her that six-month time frame.
The community rallied behind the couple once again, holding a benefit to help Larry and his wife cover the cost of the air ambulance trip. The Glory Singers performed at the event, held at the Community United Methodist Church in Waterford. A minister at the event gave Larry words to remember.
“He said, ‘You have ministered to the community for seven years. Now it is time for the community to minister to you and your family in a time of need,’” Larry recalled.
“And the community did.”
Another tragedy
Larry’s call to his chaplainship came on the heels of another personal tragedy within in the family. In October 1988, the couple’s 18-year-old daughter, Laura, was driving friends home when a tire blew out on her vehicle on I-43.
She died instantly when she was thrown from the car and the vehicle rolled on top of her. Another passenger in the car later died of his injuries. Larry had always had it in the back of his mind to become a chaplain – he served in the Navy for eight months during 1966-67 as a chaplain’s assistant at Portsmouth Navy Hospital.
In 1996, Jennie finally asked what Larry was waiting for.
“After pastoring Emmanuel Baptist here in Burlington here for 7½ years, she said it was about time,” Larry said. He took his training at St. Luke’s Hospital in Milwaukee from 1996-97, and his first job as a chaplain was at Lakeview Specialty Hospital in Waterford. He was then hired at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee.
After spending seven years in the proverbial trenches – he was a pool chaplain at Froedtert, which meant he ministered throughout the hospital, including the trauma room – he decided it was time to come home.
Simply put, his experiences have shaped his life.
“So many people let tragedies make them bitter and resentful,” Williams said. “Through the grace of God, we’ve been able to take that tragedy and turn it into a ministry to help others going through the same.”
Since that day, both Larry and Jennie have felt the support of those around him. The decision to retire from Memorial Hospital comes not as a full retirement, but as a step back by Larry to spend more time with Jennie – and also to continue his other ministerial duties.
He will continue to work with funeral directors in area communities, as well as perform weddings and provide counsel on advance directives. He’ll also fill in at churches when they need an interim pastor or someone to handle a week when a minister is out of town.
Larry said his calling will not allow him leave quietly. He is hugely thankful for what he calls the “honor and privilege” of serving his community, and he’s not quite ready for it to end.
“It’s in my heart,” Larry said. “I love the people of the community. I love my position, and God still called me.
“God isn’t finished with me yet.”
Larry Williams can be reached at (262) 534-6952, or (262) 492-3836 for those seeking pastoral care.
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