Dozens of devoted members of Piedmont Baptist Church gathered early this month to honor Rebecca Washington. They came to the church to celebrate Washington’s 100th birthday Nov. 2. Many of them were part of her extended family; and only a few there couldn’t trace some kind of family or long-time close connection. Mostly, though, they came because she had served as a guiding light, a moral compass to her community for as long as they could remember.
“I call her Mother Bec,” said Joyce Coleman, who lives in Waynesboro but grew up in the church. Coleman, who is known for her impeccable dress and beautiful hats, said “Mother Bec” had given her a hat years ago.
“She is so faithful,” Coleman added. “She’s been a role model for us all.”
Brenda Arkward had also been touched many times over the years by Washington. “She was always so beautiful and outgoing,” she said, “and so caring and loving.”
James Jackson, who identified himself as a cousin, said growing up everyone knew that Washington was the one who would go the extra mile for the young people, whatever they needed.
Marcus Washington is Rebecca’s grandson. Speaking before the crowd, he described the huge expanse of years and history that formed his grandmother’s life. As a young girl, she would have known elders who remembered slavery, he said. She was raised at a time when most of the neighborhood had no running water, electricity, or cars. She lived through integration and the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. One of nine children, she worked in the household of the Rinehart family for decades. Randy Rinehart, who was a contemporary of Marcus Washington’s father, attended the luncheon and said Rebecca had helped raise him and later nursed his mother.
His grandmother had buried two husbands, Marcus said, and both were named Washington. He said that because of the long service of leaders like Rebecca, the church has endured and produced successful, honorable people. He remembered that his grandmother was always kind, gentle and sweet; that she gave him his first Bible; that her faith was very deep. “Her prayers have sustained me and my family even when we were unable to pray for ourselves,” he said.
Rebecca sat beneath golden balloons identifying her age, and received a steady stream of well-wishers throughout the afternoon. When asked about her secrets to a long life, she didn’t mention diet, exercise or supplements: “Trust God,” she said.
