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She had been a charter member of Trinity Church when it was
founded just after World War II. She was an "original" and she
was faithful. Every Sunday she sat in the same place, third pew
on the right, just past the first large pillar. Generations of
members of Trinity Church had grown accustomed to seeing her sit
in that pew. Few knew her name, however. She didn't mingle much
and it didn't seem like she wanted to be bothered much by small
talk. So the folks just called her, "The Lady in Blue." That's
because she almost always wore a blue dress to church. "The Lady
in Blue" and her place in the pew had become part of the fabric
of life at Trinity.
And then, one Sunday, her place was vacant. "The Lady in Blue"
was nowhere to be seen. Everyone noticed, you couldn't help it.
There was just a kind of vacuum at Trinity Church that morning.
The pastor announced from the pulpit that their "Lady in Blue,"
whose name was actually Grace Givens, had passed away early that
morning of a sudden heart attack. The funeral would be on
Wednesday morning at 10 at Trinity.
Quite a few of the older members of the congregation gathered
that Wednesday morning to pay their respects to this woman whom
hardly anyone even knew by name. After the committal service many
of them gathered back at the church for a light lunch. Grace
Givens' daughter had come back to town for the occasion. Her name
was April Givens. April had spent the days prior to the funeral
making arrangements for the burial service and going through her
mother's things. She got quite an education as she sorted through
her mother's belongings, diaries and financial affairs.

"So sorry about your mother's passing," Tom Warren said to
April. "We hardly knew her, you know. But she was always in her
place on Sunday morning."
"Are you the Warrens whose son Frank had such a sickly spell
some years back?" April Givens asked.
"Yes yes we are. Why do you ask?"
"Well," said April, "I ran across your name and Frank's name
in mother's prayer diary. For a long period of time it appears
that Mom prayed for your family for an hour each day."
"For us," Tom replied with unbelief in his eyes. "I had no
idea she even knew who we were."
April Givens had many conversations like this the day of the
funeral. When she met the Browns she told them that she had
discovered that it was her mother who totally funded the
scholarship the church gave for their son to get through college.
"We had no idea," said the Browns.
There were many more whom "The Lady in Blue" had prayed for
and helped out through her years of membership at Trinity. April
Givens revealed some of the secrets of Grace Givens' life that
day to the people of this congregation. Their responses all
sounded about the same. "But I hardly knew her." "How did she
even know we had that need?" "Why would she do that for us?" "I
didn't even know her name."
The people of Trinity Church were dumbfounded to discover all
the myriads of ways that their "Lady in Blue" had served their
needs through the years. It was astonishing. It was the best kept
secret in Trinity Church. The dedication of "The Lady in Blue"
was a secret on earth; it was not, of course, a secret in heaven.