Hazel Clear

Mrs. Hazel R. Clear age 82 of LaFollette passed away Monday, January 5, 2015.  She was a member of Elm Grove Baptist Church.  Preceded in death by Parents, Willie and Ara Teague; Brothers, Raymond Teague, Fred Teague, Chet Teague, and Ed Teague; Sister, Geraldine Human.

Survivors: Husband of 61 years, Carl E. Clear; Daughter, Susan Dunaway and Husband, Dave; Son, Robert Clear and Wife, Becky; Six Grandchildren, Thirteen Great-grandchildren; Sister, Georgia Douglas; Several nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends.

Funeral Services Friday 2 P.M. at LaFollette Church of God with Rev. Sonny Wilkes and Rev. Hobart McCreary officiating.  Interment to follow at Campbell Memorial Gardens.  The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 P.M. Thursday at LaFollette Church of God.  The family requests that in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions be made to: East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, c/o E.T.C.H., P.O. Box 15010, Knoxville, TN 37901.  Online condolences for Mrs. Clear may be made at www.waltersfuneralhome.net.  Walters Funeral Home of LaFollette is honored to be serving the family of Mrs. Hazel R. Clear.

EULOGY TO HAZEL CLEAR

By David H. Dunaway

In 1953, after returning from Japan at the end of World War II, Carl Clear went in search of a queen and he found a jewel of an angel, Hazel Ruth Teague, who became Hazel Clear.  Together Carl and Hazel Clear became Seven Star Coal Company, which was eventually conveyed to Robert Clear Coal Corporation, and whose mining operations were eventually conveyed to National Coal Corporation, which became one of the largest coal mining operations in the State of Tennessee.  For over 40 years, the Clears were loyal patrons and customers of Stowers Equipment Company, Rice Oil Company, and Terry’s Pharmacy, and Double S Bookkeeping.  They were also original contributors to the Christian Academy of Campbell County, charter founders of the Speedwell Volunteer Fire Department, contributors of land to the Haynes Flat Baptist Church, members of the Elm Grove Baptist Church, contributors to a host of charitable and political causes, and for nearly 18 years were my mother and father-in-law.

In 1953, however, in the early years of his life, Carl Clear was at his crossroads.  As the song so apply sung by HighRoad III describes, while pushing stones down a gravel road, he had lost all sense of direction until he entered the commissary at Eagen, Tennessee one day and met a young girl who looked like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, who was working as a meat butcher, and she helped Carl find his way back home.   Carl needed an angel at his crossroads.  At that point of his life, he, like so many of us, had been running and had been running oh so fast.   He lied about his age and entered the Army at age 16.  Carl eventually was reunited with his own family and took a number of jobs as a laborer before owning a service station with Hazel and eventually becoming a coal miner.

While every sinner has a future and every saint has a past, Carl Clear’s saint was Hazel.

Like a preacher needs a Bible, a sinner needs revival.  And we’ve all searched for answers to things we did not know.  Carl’s revival and answer came through his angel, Hazel Clear.  Carl found his angel at the crossroads, and she was Hazel Clear.

Hazel has now gone to her Beulah Land.

I am quite sure she would not want us to weep for her, but to rejoice over the fact that her pain is gone, her memory and dignity restored, and through a gift of grace, God has received her with open arms.

Next to my own parents, Carl and Hazel were two of the hardest workers that I have known in my life.  It is hard for anyone to fathom these days the difficulty of living in a home without running water, and before his marriage to Hazel, as a child, Carl and his brothers and sisters wondered from where their next meal would come or what their future would hold.

But God says to us, and as Carl and Hazel found during their marriage, all we need to do is pray because God does all things for us, and when we ask, we will receive.

God has all this grace and yet sometimes we live with scarcity.

Carl and Hazel, however, learned that together they need not rush, nor run down a road so fast because God had everything they needed.

We need to remember that if indeed times are as bad as they say they are, if the darkness in our world is growing heavier by the moment, if we are facing a spiritual battle in our home or community, then all we need to do is turn to God, who supplies unlimited grace and power.

Hazel cannot come back, but we can go to her.

James 4:14 says, “How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow?  Your life is like the morning fog – it’s here a little while and then gone.”  James 4:17 also reminds us that it is a sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.  When we do not know what to do, then we need to do what we know.

My wife, Susan, told me the story of when Wes was born, she was a new mother, and even though she didn’t know what to do, her mother Hazel stayed with her for a week, helping her take care of Wes and doing what she knew.  Hazel did what she did best, and that was taking care of people.

Every day is a precious gift from God.  We have no guarantee that we’re going to be here tomorrow.  Life is fragile.  We need to live every day like it could be our last.  We need to treasure our moments as a gift from God.

I know that Hazel treasured those precious moments when she could spend time with her children.  There was a time when Hazel and Carl were watching their son Robert play at a basketball game.  Robert, as a member of the Jellico High School basketball team, was making a breakaway play to shoot a layup and Robert had his legs get cut out from under him by a LaFollette player, knocking Robert to the floor and cutting open his head.  Carl was sort of chuckling to himself and looked over to where Hazel was sitting only to find that she was the first person on the basketball court.  Her son was bleeding, she attended to him, but yet she stayed to watch the game until it was over and another player shot Robert’s foul shots and won the game.  Those who did not know also learned that you don’t mess with Hazel’s children or her family.  At least in the presence of Hazel.

Job 14 tells us that humanity is frail.  How short is life and how full of trouble it is.  We blossom like a flower and then wither like a passing shadow and then we quickly disappear.  God knows how many months we will live.

We need to remember that when we approach people who are hurting, they seldom need a long speech from us.  Just being with them is a great help.

Grief sometimes makes us say things we wouldn’t normally say.  When we are going through sorrow, we may express feelings of anger, despair, or resentment.  We don’t need someone to argue with us; we need someone to remind us that God loves us.  And sometimes the best way this can be communicated is through a simple, quiet presence.  If we receive that kind of support, we will eventually get to the place where we remember that God is acquainted with our grief.  God knows our pain.  He lost a son.  He watches His children make huge mistakes every day.  He understands our sorrow.  Grief is one of the valleys of the shadow of death.  We don’t have to fear as long as we remember that God is with us.

Hazel experienced much grief during her life, the loss of her parents, a loss of her brothers and sisters, a loss of her physical health and a loss of her ability to participate in her community causes and activities that she loved.  Her great niece, Sheryl Tanner, and granddaughter of her sister Georgia, wrote her thoughts about Hazel as follows:

I was blessed to grow up with a very large, extended family.  While my immediate family was small and my parents were absent for most of my childhood, I had lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins that I loved dearly.  I said goodbye to my Aunt Hazel…she was strong, smart, and determined.  I like to think I’m like her.  She always seemed to know what I was thinking and always knew just the right thing to say.  I remember when she told me she had Alzheimer’s.  She told me she was going to take the medication because she didn’t want to miss anything!  She loved life, loved God and her family, and I loved her.

Hazel knew no matter how deep, wide, or long her valley of grief, God was with her every step of the way.  Hazel was convinced that God would be with her through every adversity.   And even if she felt like things were so bad that her life was nearly over – she believed in a God of restoration and resurrection!  We need to remember that as long as God is in the picture, the story is not over.  In the Bible, Job was restored.  He ended up with twice what he had before.  God gave him back double.

Most of us don’t have to go through nearly as much as Job went through before we start feeling like him, nor the suffering and loss of dignity as experienced by Hazel. The story of Job is in the Bible so that we can rest in the knowledge that God is in control in every circumstance of our life and that he is full of wisdom and grace.  We should eagerly anticipate God taking the difficult times in our lives and gradually transforming them.  It is our journey with the Lord that is precious to us because we realize how close God is as He walks with us every step of the hard way.

Hazel Clear was a person of integrity, an honorable Godly woman, who could always be depended on to do the right thing regardless of the situation.

Psalms 30:5 says that weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning.  It also says that the path of righteousness is like the light of dawn shining brighter until the full day.  No matter how dark your circumstances are today, there is a place of victory on the other side of your challenge.

If we were suddenly given only a short time to live, no doubt we would be more loving, generous, compassionate and kind.  We probably wouldn’t get upset as easily.  We would take time for what is really important like our family and friends.  We would go on that special date that we promised our son or daughter.  We wouldn’t be too busy to be at our children’s basketball game.  We would take five minutes and write that letter of appreciation that we’ve been meaning to send.

But life is short.  We are here but only for a moment.  The Psalmists said in Psalms 90:12:  “Teach us to realize the brevity of life.”  He was saying, “God, I recognize that I’m not going to be here forever.  Help me to not waste a day of my life complaining, discouraged, worrying and regretting.  God, teach me to number and value my days.”

Life has a way of pushing us down.  It’s easy to get up in the morning and think, “God, I don’t want to go to work.  I can’t stand the traffic.  My spouse aggravates me.  How come I haven’t gotten any good breaks?”  But life’s too short to live that way.

We need to say with the Psalmists:  “God teach me to number my days.  I have no guarantee of tomorrow.  Help me to really recognize that this day is a gift.”  Sometimes life gets busy and it’s easy to put off connecting with those we love or show appreciation to others because we don’t have the time.

As James 4:14 says:  “Life is like a vapor.  Life is short and we don’t know what tomorrow holds.  That’s why we need to make the most of each day.”  If you will learn to give the best of yourself consistently, you will live with no regrets.

In John 11:25-26, Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live.  And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”

We are told that there are two kinds of faith – a delivering faith and a sustaining faith.  Delivering faith is when God instantly turns your situation around.  When that happens, it’s great.  But it takes a greater faith and deeper walk with God to have sustaining faith.  Sustaining faith is what gets you through those dark nights of the soul when, like Job and Hazel, you don’t know where to go or what to do…but because of your faith in God, you do.  Faith tells us the best is yet to come.

In Harper Lee’s much-loved novel, “To Kill A Mockingbird,” Atticus Finch offers his daughter some invaluable advice:  “If you learn a simple trick,” he says, “you’ll get along much better with all kinds of folks.  You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”  Trying to put yourself into another’s place, to share for a moment his or her feelings, is often the starting point of compassion.  But there’s more to true compassion than just emotion.  To help someone, you usually have to do something, not just feel something.  Compassion takes the name of action.  It means exerting yourself and bestowing some effort for someone else’s sake.

Like anything involving effort, compassion takes practice.  We have to work at getting into the habit of standing with others in their distress.  Sometimes offering help is a simple matter that does not take us far out of the way – remembering to speak a kind word to someone who is down, or spending an occasional Saturday morning volunteering for a favorite cause.  At other times, helping involves making some real sacrifice.  “The bone to the dog is not charity,” Jack London observed.  “Charity is the bone shared with the dog when you are just as hungry as the dog.”  If we practice taking the many small opportunities to help others, we’ll be in shape to act when those requiring real, hard sacrifice come along.

Of all the virtues, when exercised properly with whole heart and discerning mind, compassion may be the greatest degree of fulfillment.  It enriches our lives with a sense of nobleness and purpose, it makes us morally awake, and it encourages us about life generally.  Most people, thinking back over their lives, remember the times they spent giving, and helping, and loving as their very best moments.  But feeling good in the future should not be the prime motivation for doing good.  Someone once said, “The way to be comfortable is to make others comfortable; the way to make others comfortable is to appear to love them; the way to appear to love them – is to love them in reality.”

In the end, there are few things more beautiful than a kind heart.

Someone very small can be a big help to others.  We can’t help everyone, but we can always help someone.

As a sister, Hazel Clear made the path easier for her immediate brothers and sisters.  As a mother and grandmother, she made the path easier for her children and grandchildren.  By cheering on her children and grandchildren, she found encouragement for herself.  She offered kindness and never expected to be repaid in kind.

Her love and all those frequent dinners she cooked at “Mom’s house” brought warmth and life not only to her family, but to Hazel as well.

One way or another, we all depended on her kindness– and sometimes we depended on her courage as well.

According to the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans, “None of us live to himself.”

Great hearts can give rise to little miracles.

Husbands and wives can raise each other up or they can bring each other down.  To Hazel Clear, her husband, Carl, was her king.  But to Carl, Hazel was his queen.  The marriage of Carl and Hazel Clear for over 61 years reminds us that marriage means trust and tenderness, and it means respect for the work each partner has to do.

In the last 19 years that I knew Hazel and Carl, I never heard them say a mean word to each other nor did they ever argue.

Whatever Hazel wanted, Carl made sure that she got.  On the other hand, Carl wanted very little and whatever Hazel could give, she made sure that his home was his castle.

On the day of mine and Susan’s wedding, Hazel slipped me a little envelope to help pay for our honeymoon to Williamsburg, Virginia and Charleston, South Carolina.  I am quite certain that she would not have paid nor would she have ever attempted to experience a trip like that herself, but she obtained great joy from helping her children and never expected anything in return.

Hazel loved Carl.  She loved her children and she adored her grandchildren.  She loved the Lady Vols and I know she longed to see our football team return to its former status of winning.  She also loved her politics.

She and I would have some serious discussions at the dinner table.  She finally realized she could not convert me, and I knew I would never convert her.  However, what we did have in common was our belief in God such that during the later years, we would talk about religion and ceased our discussions about politics.

I am probably the one and only Democrat that Hazel ever supported and I am certain I am the only Democrat for Congress for which she ever voted.

But as a mother-in-law to her son-in-law, our relationship transcended politics.

When one of the family was in the hospital, she sat and told me one day, “You’re the best son-in-law I have.”  That was funny.  I was the only son-in-law she had.  However, 30 years ago when we first met, I am quite certain that Hazel looked at me as a Pharisee after I had sued Carl’s mining company on a land dispute involving what was the base of the mountain in White Oak.  I lost the lawsuit, but 15 years later I won her daughter.

Our relationship grew better as we both grew older.

Hazel was so proud of Carl and Carl loved Hazel.

The greatest thing for which Hazel will always be remembered was her love for her God, her love for Carl, and her love for her family.  The kind of love which could only be seen and not talked about, and embodiment of all virtues, the kind of love all husbands and wives should give to each other, the kind of love which Carl and Hazel gave to their children and grandchildren.

The Apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians explained it best as this:

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and with angels, and have no life, and become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal,

And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not love, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

Love suffered long and is kind.  Love envieth not, love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.

Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Love never faileth, but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail.  Whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

But when that, which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Hazel Clear’s love made a difference.  Her love of her God, her husband, and her family will never be forgotten.