About Worthington United Methodist Church

And I Remember.Personal Church Histories

Thealka Belle Lehman

Thealka has a passion for children. She studied nursing at Miami Valley Hospital and immediately thereafter went to the University of Minnesota on a scholarship to study early-childhood education. "I wanted to know well children in order to better understand sick children," she remembers. She returned to Ohio and married Steve; at the end of World War II they adopted Steve and, a few years later, David.

Thealka taught 3-year-olds at the Maple Grove Methodist preschool. "I wanted to be both a teacher and a nurse," she recalls. In 1958 she started a class for developmentally disabled young children, the first of its kind in Central Ohio and one of the earliest in the U.S. She and her assistant devised an instructional plan for each child for each day: no small challenge.

Steve and Thealka built a new home on Park Boulevard in the mid-50's, and soon their boys expressed a preference to attend Sunday School with classmates from Colonial Hills. The Lehmans transferred their membership from Maple Grove to Worthington in 1958. Thealka remembers that the Methodist and Presbyterian youth groups held joint meetings during the early- and mid-60's; she believes this was "a wonderful experience" for them. And she describes a Christmas Eve service during Dr. Claude Garrison's tenure in which his daughters, Nan Diener and Sue Callendine, read the beloved lessons in an antiphonal fashion. "It was beautiful," Thealka reminisces.

In the late 60's Dr. Edge Dixon asked the Lehmans to chair the Worship Committee. "I don't think we were very effective," Thealka recalls, but the committee did promote active participation by youth, both as ushers and as acolytes, in the worship services. During the early 70's they joined a "growth group," in which four couples agreed to meet twice a month at one anothers' homes; the aim was to afford an opportunity for family-like intimacy within what had become a very large congregation. This goal certainly was achieved in the Lehmans' group: Thealka has stayed in touch with all of their group's surviving members for 30 years.

Another of Thealka's fond memories is of an intercessory prayer group, led by Rev. Ron Payne, that met on Saturday mornings in the late 1970's. During two consecutive "blizzard winters" the group convened at members' homes. Steve noticed that one member always sat as close as possible to the fireplace; he called her "Cricket," and she is now your church historian.

One assignment for that prayer group gained particular meaning for Thealka. Each member was asked to find someone outside the group and offer to take over that person's prayers. Thealka chose a woman she met at the spa, whose special concern was a situation involving her daughter. Two months later she again saw the woman and learned that the daughter's problem had been resolved. That same family later hosted an international student who interned with the Franklin County MRDD program, so Thealka became better acquainted with them. More than two decades later the daughter, who had become a teacher, requested a video for her class of Thealka's run with the Olympic torch. Soon Thealka received a note of thanks from the daughter, and she now feels that "the circle has been closed."

After Steve died in 1985 Thealka faced her future realistically: grieving but undaunted. She volunteered at the Creative Play Center, telling stories and listening to the children's concerns. To this day they know her as "Granny," although her participation diminished greatly after she sustained a broken hip in a collision with a child on a tricycle; she still walks with a cane. That accident, however, cemented her friendship with Mary Wetterauer and Cheryl Hogg. "They're like daughters," she says. Macular degeneration took away Thealka's ability to read, so Mary reads to her. They take her to doctor's appointments. Cheryl recently polished her silver coffee- and tea-service. In Thealka's opinion, "If Mary and Cheryl don't get into heaven, then none of us will!"

Thealka participated for many years in the CROP Walk. She assiduously recruited pledges from "everyone I could think of" and one year raised more than $3000! She has always loved walking, but her motivation for the CROP Walk transcended "fun and fitness." During the Depression, as part of her graduate studies in Minnesota, she had visited families in their homes. There she saw the parents' desperation when their children were hungry. Thealka is overcome with emotion when describing one family who invited her to stay for dinner; their meal consisted solely of a bowl of fried potatoes.

In 1996 Thealka was selected to carry the Olympic torch on High Street. At Selby Boulevard a Down-syndrome girl lit Thealka's torch. After walking to South Street, Thealka in turn lit a torch for Amy Clark, a former Worthington teacher who has valiantly battled for many years a neurological affliction similar to Lou Gehrig's disease. Because she had worked for decades to improve life for persons with disabilities, Thealka is still struck with awe that both of her torch-bearing colleagues have special needs.

Thealka's son David, like his dad an attorney, now lives with her in the family home on Park Boulevard. "He's wonderful!" she says. "I need help with so many things. If it weren't for David I wouldn't be able to stay here." This is not merely filial duty, Thealka emphasizes: "David just takes care of me so well." And with love.

Gifted in seeing the half-full (rather than the half-empty) glass, Thealka acknowledges that "There are some things you have to give up." Yet there's still so much to do! Thealka is our oldest graduate of Stephen Ministry training and is an active care-giver. She provides monthly devotions for three groups and says with a smile, "This is something I can do, and I like to do it, and they keep asking me." A committed walker and always fit, she finds on inclement days that her exercise bicycle is more appealing if "I pretend I'm walking to church."

Grateful for those who help her to maintain an active life, Thealka ruefully remarks, "All I can do is make pecan rolls." Her many friends think otherwise.
-Jean Parks Lynn, historian (jeanparkslynn@columbus.rr.com)