Edith Schaeffer, author and wife of Francis Schaeffer, died at home in Gryon, Switzerland on Easter Sunday. She was 98.
Born Nov. 3, 1914 to missionaries in China, she married Francis Schaeffer in 1935. The two moved with their three daughters in 1948 to serve as missionaries in Switzerland, where they founded the L’Abri Fellowship.
A best-selling author like her late husband, Edith Schaeffer’s books included Affliction (Revell/Baker Publishing Group), The Tapestry: The Life and Times of Francis and Edith Schaeffer(Word Books) and Christianity Is Jewish (Tyndale House Publishers). Affliction and The Tapestry won the Gold Medallion award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association in 1979 and 1982, respectively.
The Schaeffers’ son, Frank Schaeffer, memorialized his mother in a letter titled “Goodbye Mom, Edith Schaeffer 1914-2013 RIP” posted on his blog.
“Mom treated everyone she ever met well, spent more time talking to ‘nobodies’ than to the rich and famous, who flocked to her after her books were published and became best-sellers,” he wrote. “Through my experience of being a father of three and grandfather of four, I’ve finally been able to test mom’s life wisdom and spiritual outlook and found out that she was right: love, continuity, beauty, forgiveness, art, life and loving a loving, all-forgiving God really are the only things that matter.”
There will be a funeral in Gryon and a private burial in Rochester, Switzerland, where Schaeffer will be laid to rest alongside her husband. At a later date, a public memorial will be held in Rochester.
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