Fern Wilson Memorial Service
May 8, 2023 11:00am - 12:00pm | Linwood Community Church
A Memorial Service for Fern Wilson Monday, May 8th, 2023
Obituary
Fern A. Wilson (94) passed away peacefully in her home in Glen Mills, PA on April 3rd, 2023. She was surrounded by three of her daughters. Fern was the 14th and last living child of 17 children born to Peter and Emma Rickert on a farm in Hilltown, PA. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Thomas R. Wilson, her siblings, her son-in-law Brent Lewis, and her grandson Kyle Myers.
She is survived by her five children: Ginny (Frank) Henderson of Glen Mills PA, Eugene (Linda) of Plantation FL, Bonnie (Mark) Andrien of Chester Springs PA, Laura (Scott) Reist of Upper Darby PA, Jocelyn Lewis of Colorado Springs CO, 8 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren.
Fern was a graduate of Philadelphia College of the Bible and Columbia Bible College. She and her husband felt called to serve as Christian Missionaries. They joined the North Africa Mission in 1950 and worked for them for 35 years, first in Morocco and then in France. Fern learned to read and write French and Classical Arabic. While raising her three eldest children in Morocco, Fern taught sewing classes, reading classes, and was an intake clerk at the hospital where her husband worked as the Director. While raising her two youngest children in Marseilles, France she worked at the Radio School of the Bible in the correspondence department using her knowledge of French and Arabic. She was the hospitality host who helped with the logistics of getting new families situated in a foreign country.
Fern and Tom retired to the Bradenton Missionary Village in Bradenton, FL in 1987. Fern pursued her desire to help others by volunteering to care for patients on Hospice and by serving as an aide in an elementary school in an impoverished neighborhood. She won an award for her service to the Community. Wherever she was she was active in her church. To her family’s surprise, she was a writer. She self-published her memoirs as a volunteer for Hospice and the account of her adult life in “As I Remember.”
A celebration of her life will be held in Linwood, NJ at a later time. Her burial service will be private.