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Dot Threadgill
During the 20 years I lived on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay, a woman in my church made a lasting impression on me and my faith.
Dot and her husband Rix had gone as Presbyterian missionaries to the Congo, but only got to spend a year or two there before they had to return to the US.
Dot was a nurse and Rix was a high school history teacher and Presbyterian lay minister. They had 11 children, 9 of whom were special needs, mixed-race, adopted children. Dot and Rix raised their family on a very modest income, attending local public schools and churches (a Black church their father pastored and a PCUSA church formed when the PCA split occurred).
Some of the children turned out spectacularly, some made the most of what they had to work with physically, mentally and emotionally, and some went down some wrong paths with consequent results.
Dot and Rix acknowledged success and didn’t deny failure. They were there for all of their children with a very practical, no pie in the sky, realistic, supportive Christian faith.
To know Dot, to be in a Bible study she led, or to be in a group when she led prayer were probably the best lessons I ever had in living an authentic Christian life.
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