Some lives are best understood not only by what people did, but by the direction in which they moved.
Lucille LeBeau and Naomi Koerwitz Dassow were nurses. But the word “nurse,” by itself, does not tell the whole story. Their lives were marked by something deeper: they went to people. They did not wait for suffering to become convenient. They did not limit compassion to an office, a desk, or an appointment schedule. They moved toward need.
As I look back now, I see more than coincidence. I see the sovereignty and providence of God.
Two different young Christian women, from different backgrounds and different Christian traditions, were brought together for a season in Buckhorn, Kentucky. They did not arrange the deeper meaning of that meeting. God did. Long before either of them was born, the Lord knew their days, their gifts, their sorrows, their service, and the ways their lives would touch others.
Psalm 139:16 says, “...all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”
That verse gives me comfort. It reminds me that Lucille and Naomi’s meeting in Buckhorn was not an accident. It was part of a larger story God was writing.
Lucille had a nursing and ministry life before Naomi entered the story. Naomi also had a nursing life before Buckhorn. She taught nursing at Eau Claire State University and made public health visits to rural farm families near Augusta, Wisconsin. Even early in her career, Naomi’s work was not merely clinical. It was personal. It involved homes, families, roads, kitchens, questions, fears, and needs that could not always be seen from behind a desk.
Both Lucille and Naomi had experienced a renewal of faith in Jesus early in life. They came from different theological backgrounds, but they were Christian sisters in the Lord. That matters. Their shared faith was not just private belief. It became a kind of community between them.
They lived together. They worked together. They served together. In Buckhorn, that “sisters in the Lord” community was not a church phrase. It was daily life. It was prayer, fatigue, conversation, laughter, concern, service, and the practical demands of helping people in need. They were together in a 24/7 kind of way, and their faith shaped how they saw people.
For a season, Lucille and Naomi served in rural Appalachia. Lucille was older, experienced, and seasoned by years of nursing and ministry. Naomi was younger, learning, serving, and being shaped. Together they entered a world where public health was not an abstract idea. It was a road to a remote home. It was a mother needing help. It was a sick child. It was a family without easy access to care. It was faith with boots on.
Their influence went out into the community not only as nurses, but as Christian women who carried the compassion of Christ with them.
I think of something Lauri Thompson said back at their college graduation. While parents were snapping pictures, these young women were taking something more than a college degree out into the world. They were taking faith, calling, gifts, training, and a willingness to serve.
That was true of Naomi. And I believe it was true of Lucille too.
The Buckhorn season may have been short in years, but not in influence. It became part of Naomi’s foundation. God used Lucille in Naomi’s life. And Naomi carried that spirit into the rest of her own calling.
After their paths parted, God had a different plan for Lucille and a different plan for Naomi.
Lucille’s life continued in varied ways of service and ministry. Her story included Brazil, Kentucky, Christian retreat ministry, China-related mission work, Haiti, and other forms of nursing and compassionate service. She continued to be a woman who crossed distances for the sake of others.
Naomi returned to Milwaukee and continued nursing in hospitals, home care, and public health. She later spent many years with the North Shore Health Department. She volunteered with the Red Cross, going to fires and crisis situations. She served with the Salvation Army as a volunteer chaplain. She trained with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team because her heart was ready to go to people in distress.
This was the thread: Naomi went toward people.
And then, in God’s providence, I became part of Naomi’s story. I met her later in life, after waiting many years. We were married for 45 years. I saw her faith, her service, her suffering, her humor, her courage, and her love for the Lord. I also saw how deeply nursing and public health were woven into who she was.
Naomi’s life was shortened by PKD, yet her calling was not shortened. Her body became weak, but her life still bore witness. She had spent years caring for others, and in her final season she also received care. Even that became part of the story God was writing.
Lucille and Naomi were not identical. Their lives began in different places and followed different paths. But for a time, their paths joined in Buckhorn. And in that joining, one woman helped shape another. Lucille’s life touched Naomi’s life. Naomi’s life then touched many others.
That is legacy.
Legacy is not only a plaque, a bench, or a memory preserved in writing, though those things can be meaningful. Legacy is also continuation. It is the passing forward of a calling. It is one life helping another life become more faithful, more courageous, more useful, and more available to God.
Maybe this is part of what I have been looking for.
Not just a memorial to Naomi.
Not just a remembrance of Buckhorn.
Not just a donation to a worthy cause.
But a living legacy: two nurses, two sisters in the Lord, one shared calling, and a reminder that God prepares good works long before we understand them.
Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
I believe that was true of Lucille.
I believe that was true of Naomi.
And I believe it is still true for those of us who remain.
Prayer
Lord, thank You for the lives of Lucille and Naomi. Thank You for bringing them together in Your providence, for renewing their faith, and for using their gifts to serve people in need. Thank You for the quiet, faithful work of nurses, caregivers, chaplains, and servants who go toward suffering with compassion. Help me honor Naomi’s life not only with memory, but with faithfulness. Show me the good works You have prepared for me in this season. Teach me to trust Your timing, Your sovereignty, and Your love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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