During his greetings, (Dr. Duncan) took some personal time to make remarks about the death of his long time church Administrative Assistant and the hostess for every previous TLF gathering, Mrs. Misseye Rhee Braezale, who went to be with the Lord last fall.

Dr. Ligon Duncan, Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi, and host of the annual Twin Lakes Ministerial Fellowship, greeted the attendees at this years meeting which kicked off at the Twin Lakes at 2:00PM Tuesday. During his greetings, he took some personal time out to make remarks about the death of his long time church Administrative Assistant and the hostess for every previous TLF gathering, Mrs. Misseye Rhee Braezael, who went to be with the Lord last fall.

Following is the text of those remarks, which serve as a great remembrance of this Elect Lady:

Now, I need to say one more thing by way of introduction this year. This is the first year in many that Missye Rhee Breazeale is not here to mother us and spoil us rotten. Most of you know by now and have known for many months of the death of our cherished Missye Rhee Breazeale. Because she was so special to us, I am going to take the extraordinary step of sharing a little with you a little about her last days, especially since so many of you didn’t even realize that she was sick, or how ill she was (because she never wanted attention for herself). For almost four years Missye Rhee had bravely fought metastatic breast cancer in her bones. Almost two years ago, she told me her goal was to work through May of 2009. She beat that goal. But the late summer of last year was tough for her, and she spent many days in the hospital. In August, she readjusted her goal to make it to December 31, 2009. She wanted to try to work to (or even through) the end of last year. But her health declined noticeably in October.

I was stunned by how rapidly this transpired. Missye Rhee was in the office Friday, October 30, 2009 working. Then, that next Sunday to Thursday (November 1-5), she was at M.D. Anderson in Houston for her scheduled evaluation. While there, she got a grim report. The cancer was progressing. Her liver had been compromised by previous chemo treatments, and the cancer was growing in it as well. Because the liver is necessary to process chemo treatments, it left the Breazeale’s few options. Once back in Jackson, she and Don met with her doctors here and she bravely took a round of chemo on Monday (November 9). Late Tuesday night, November 10th, Don took her to the Emergency Room at St Dominic’s. Her liver was failing. Don called the family together, and they came.

Don texted me at 6:15 Wednesday morning, November the 11th to tell me. I met with the family in her room around 9am, and got to see her, and to tell her I loved her. She looked absolutely beautiful, and flashed a radiant smile. The family was with her all day. In the afternoon, about 4 o’clock, as her children were all telling her how proud they were of her, she replied, deflecting all praise and giving glory to God, and then slipped into a deep sleep. Two hours later, at 6 o’clock, in Room 4226 of St. Dominic’s Hospital, on the afternoon of November 11, 2009, with her loving husband, Don, at her side, and with her children and mother surrounding her, she lost and won. The cancer defeated her body, but her Savior had already defeated death itself, for her. And because she trusted in him alone for salvation as he is offered in the Gospel, she heard his “welcome home.” “O death, where is your victory? O grave, where is your sting?”

Don called me just after 6 in the evening, and I rushed to St. D’s again. We wept, and read Scripture, and clung to one another, and prayed, and recounted memories of this truly extraordinary woman. I would want you to know that, though the family is grieving (and appropriately so), they are also full of hope and trust in the Lord, and gratitude to him for Missye Rhee.

Don and Missye Rhee hoped all along, even after the bad report at M.D. Anderson, that she could fight on to the year’s end. I did too. But her liver had been pummeled beyond endurance by chemo and cancer. Though her death was completely peaceful and she was relatively free of discomfort, we’ll probably never know just how badly she felt in the last months as she continued to soldier on. I have seen many friends in the final days of cancer in the liver. None of them were able to work right up to the end like Missye Rhee. But that doesn’t surprise me about her at all.

I want you to know two other things. 1. Missye Rhee served me for exactly seven years to the day. Her first day at the office was November 11, 2002. She never wrote a letter of resignation. Just like her. She worked to the end. Never complained. Kept her post. Served the Lord. And the funeral, brothers you just can’t imagine. A dear father in the faith, who had also had the extraordinary privilege and blessing of being served by an amazing assistant, and who knew Missye Rhee, and who knew how she served us, and who knew what she meant to me, wrote after her death and said: “perhaps God will be gracious and allow you to serve her in the New Creation.” Yes.

2. And she and I had mutually agreed that we hoped Jan Hyde would take her place. Well over a year ago Missye Rhee told me she hoped that Jan would take her chair at First Presbyterian when the time came. I had already come to that hope, independently, myself. And God saw fit to bring that to pass. Jan was interviewed by the elders in late October, and then approved by the Management Committee the first Tuesday in November, and appointed by the elders less than 48 hours before Missye Rhee died.