A large number of family and friends gathered in La Poste Sunday afternoon to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of Lois and Lou Hoger of Perry.
Arranged by the Hogers’ children, Joel Hoger of Indianola and Amy Hoger Ramsey of Carlisle, the open house produced two hours of fellowship, with many old friends thanked and many old memories renewed by the honorees.
The life of a Lutheran minister is one of action, movement and spiritual hunger, and the story of the retired Rev. Lou Hoger’s life is one only he is fit to relate, from his days as a prison chaplain to his days as a Tyson Fresh Meats chaplain, with much provincial pastoring in between.
Of the pastor’s humble help meet, Lois Hoger, she too knows best the 50-year tale, but her tireless advocacy for abused women and children is well known to all. Nothing better evinces her devotion to her husband than her forgoing of a trip to Hamilton, Mo., Saturday with her sister quilters of the Perry Piecemakers Quilting Guild. Greater love than this no quilter hath.
Joel and his wife, Megan Hoger, and Amy and her husband, Paul Ramsey, and all their seven children shared the Sunday celebrations, and Lois’ brother, Dean Raabe of Elkhorn, Neb., drove over for the day, regaling the congregated crowd with humorous fishing stories and presenting the anniversary pair with handmade hanging ornaments of indefinite utility.
An a cappella quintet from Grace Lutheran Church in Adel performed a spirited version of the old gospel standard, “Now Thank We All Our God,” and the Rev. Julie Higgs of Grace Lutheran delivered a benediction from the third chapter of the Apostle Paul’s epistle to the Colossians:
Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. Be tolerant of one another, and forgive each other if anyone has a complaint against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, you also should forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which ties everything together in unity.
Lou Hoger might be retired, but he is far from idle. He is currently the interim pastor at Christ Lutheran Church in Jefferson, from where three wellwishers traveled to share the Hogers’ anniversary joy. Bev Murphy of Scranton, her daughter, Paula Murphy of Jefferson, and Jeanene Baker of Jefferson said they greatly admire Pastor Lou’s sermons and even more his singing voice.
Posed next to life-sized cutouts of themselves on their wedding day 50 years ago, for a moment the Hogers became as it were types, symbols, images or even allegories of the mysterious marriage of our time-bound bodies to our immortal souls, spanning the way we were to the way we are, in a way that called to mind the words of the English poet:
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be;
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering;
In the faith that looks through death,
In years that bring the philosophic mind.
