Margaret West Taylor

We lost a saint this week, a nearly 101-year-old woman who was variously known as Ken Taylor’s wife, Mrs. Taylor the mother of all those kids (there were 10 of them), mom, and, to more than 100 of us (28 grandchildren, their spouses, and 79 great-grandchildren), Grandma Taylor. There are a lot of things I could say about Margaret West Taylor and her very full life of faithfully following her ever-faithful Savior, but to me the thing that keeps coming to mind is all the ways grandma showed me what my job is—as a wife, mother, church member, and friend. Her quiet example of daily, grateful obedience to her Savior taught me more than any number of well-meaning books ever could.

My own mother modeled a lot of these same things, but somehow my path has more closely followed the well-worn trail of grandma’s life. For one thing, my husband has spent his career in the publishing company Ken and Margaret started. For another, though I have half as many kids as she did, somehow the large-family stories still seem to apply. We read the other night in an old Christmas letter about the vacation to Prince Edward Island on which they had to make daily stops at the hospital for rabies shots due to a skunk bite one of the children had contracted. Perhaps my tales of camping on PEI while fighting several cases of lice pale in comparison, but I feel I can relate. We also read about the time they found the vacation house locked so they sent a child in through a window. I’m pretty sure that exact thing happened to us.

I married into the Taylor family 20 years ago, so I guess that would make grandma about 80 when I met her. But through her vivid stories (she was one of the best story tellers I know!), I also knew her as a young woman, a mother, and a working woman. Here are some of the things I learned from her example.

1) What it means to honor your husband.

Ken Taylor, Margaret’s husband, had a lot of big, God-given dreams. Some of those dreams interfered with having a stable income. But Margaret joyfully supported her husband and shared in the ministry God had given him. When he left his stable job at Moody Publishers to start his own company, she became an expert in whatever needed to be done to keep his dream afloat. There were some lean years, and as the homemaker the bulk of finding creative ways to provide for the family fell to grandma. Nevertheless, she didn’t belittle or question grandpa’s plans. The result was a flourishing publishing company and many best-sellers, most notably the New Living Translation. Countless millions of people have been touched because of the humble, behind-the-scenes support of a loving wife.

2) How to prioritize but not pamper your children.

Margaret always said her children were her number one priority, and I think they knew that. But she also knew how to let kids be kids. I have often needed the advice she gave one of her daughters-in-law: “well, if you don’t want to see them climbing trees, don’t watch!” I’m not willing to go as far as she did and allow my children to investigate, boil, and reconstruct for a science project the carcass of a cat, but nevertheless I do try to relax and let my kids grow into themselves without too much interference.

I also learned from grandma that you can have a full life after kids, a vision I need as I start watching my children leave the nest. Grandma did a lot of adventuring in her long life, and much of it was after her 10 children had grown up. This gives me hope that the next stage of my life can also be fulfilling and fun.

3) How to balance thrift and generosity.

I know a lot of thrifty people, and I know some generous people, but finding someone who is both is a rare treasure. No one knew how to pinch pennies like Margaret did—I remember her soaking the stamps off of reply envelopes to use for her own correspondence. Most of her possessions came from thrift stores. You would never guess from Ken and Margaret’s lifestyle that they had quite a bit of money. But they did, and they were extremely generous with it, giving huge sums of money to the Lord’s work around the world even before they cared for their own needs. Their legacy lives on today through a charitable foundation they set up more than 45 years ago to give away all the proceeds of The Living Bible and the New Living Translation. 

4) The true meaning of hospitality. 

Perhaps most of all, Margaret’s example of hospitality inspires and challenges me. Even in her later years, when she could no longer stand in the kitchen and had to scoot a little stool around the kitchen while she cooked, grandma still hosted people in her home weekly. And she did it even in the lean years, when there was barely enough to feed her own family, let alone guests. I don’t think people in my generation understand hospitality—the generous treatment of strangers or guests—the way grandma did. She joyfully welcomed in all the people Ken invited home, even if the planned meal was very simple and perhaps not quite enough. In those cases it was “family hold back.” I can’t even count the number—and variety—of people who have told me, upon hearing that we now live in the old Taylor homestead, “I was in that house once. Margaret had me over for dinner . . . or a shower . . . or (most likely of all) a prayer group.” We need more of that type of kindness in the world, the kind that invites others in and allows them to see the mess of a busy life and enjoy a simple meal served with love.

The verse Margaret chose for her gravestone is

“For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve others.” (Mark 10:45)

What a fitting summary of her life, and may I and those of us who knew her and loved her continue to be inspired by her example of humble service to the glory of God.

Margaret West Taylor in the pink shirt, surrounded by her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. For those who are into math, this group is projected to number 600 by the year 2040.