Fay Louise Gilger

After spending her final days in hospice care at the Hospice and Community Care Center in Mt. Joy, Fay left us Monday morning after almost 86 years of life. She began those years in Tacoma, WA with her parents John and Maretta Brammer and her brother Jack. As a young woman she left Tacoma for Chicago to pursue her nurse’s training at West Suburban Hospital, Oak Park, IL and to study at Moody Bible Institute. Chicago is where she met Charlie and they began their life together. Married in 1952, Fay Louise Brammer and Charles Garfield Gilger spent 57 years together before Charlie's death in September 2009. They raised three children, Susan, Dean and Andrew and at the time of her death Fay was the grandmother of 11 and great grandmother of 5. Fay's story cannot be told without recalling the life that she and Charlie built together. It was a life of faith dedicated to their family, their church and their vocations. While Fay spent her life nursing, Charlie pastored churches and provided casework support to families dealing with poverty and living on social assistance. From the time they moved to Lancaster in 1967 until her retirement in 1992 Fay worked the night shift in St. Joseph's Hospital Labor and Delivery. She brought babies into the world in the middle of the night and was home in time to see her kids off to school in the morning. In the early years of her retirement, she volunteered her knowledge and skills to a March of Dimes program providing pre-natal care for incarcerated women. Fay and Charlie's association with First Baptist Church began in 1967 as well. Together and separately they ran youth programs and a young couples' class, taught Sunday school and were always an integral part of the life of the church. All of us who were touched by her loving kind and generous spirit will miss her terribly but as much as we mourn her loss we also send her gently on her way surrounded by our love - into the presence of love's completeness. Relatives and friends are invited to attend Fay’s Celebration of Life Memorial Service on Thursday, November 7, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. at The Groffs Family Funeral & Cremation Services, 528 West Orange Street (corner of Orange and Pine Streets), Lancaster. The family will receive friends at The Groffs from 12:00 Noon until time of service. A time of fellowship will also follow the memorial service. Private interment services will be held at the convenience of the family. In lieu of flowers the family would invite donations to Hospice and Community Care, P.O. Box 4125, Lancaster, PA 17604, First Baptist Church, 612 N. Duke Street, Lancaster 17602 or a charity of your choice.

Fay Louise Gilger

November 4, 2013