by Helen Jesze 31st July 2026
“I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your
grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in
you also.” Timothy 1:5 NIV
Today I would like to write about a lady who greatly influenced me as a child,
through her life and her prayers. In the above Bible verse, the Apostle Paul is writing
to his son in the faith, Timothy, reminding him of his godly grandmother and mother,
and the influence they had upon Timothy’s life and faith. I have already written about
my parents, today my Grandma comes into her own!
Grandma Gabriel, my mother’s mother, was born as Harriet Fletcher on 31 May 1880
in Toynton All Saints, Lincolnshire, England. She had 4 brothers and 1 sister. The
family were Wesleyan Methodists and Harriet’s father, Joseph, was a local preacher
for both the Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels in the area. The family
regularly attended and were very active in chapel services.
At the age of 25, Harriet took up her first teaching job. The village held a welcoming
party for the new teacher, in the open-air. Harriet wore real flowers in her hat and the
bees would come and try to suck nectar from them! Being a Methodist, Harriet had
signed the pledge to say she was a staunch teetotaller and would drink no alcohol. At
the party she was offered some homemade wine, and was assured there was no
alcohol in it. But someone had played a joke on her and Harriet became quite tipsy.
She was mortified when she later realised what had happened!
Harriet married Alfred Thomas Gabriel on 8 June 1908. Their first child was Alfred
Harold Douglas, always known as ‘Douglas’, who sadly died of Diphtheria at age 6.
Then came my mother, Alice Muriel, and Greta May. Alfred, who was a baker and
pastry-cook served in the Navy and the Royal Army Service Corps in a field kitchen
and on board ship.
In October, Harriet nearly died in 1919/1920. She had the Spanish Flu which turned
to Tuberculosis. The doctor left, stating she would soon die. However, her brother,
William persevered all that afternoon in prayer; he himself, had been healed by God.
Later that afternoon, Harriet had a vision of Jesus walking into her bedroom. He
came and stood at the bottom of her bed, and held out His hands. Harriet thought He
had come to take her to Heaven, and sat up saying, “Yes, Lord!”
But Jesus stretched out his hand and said, “No, not yet!” and then disappeared.
Harriet began to vomit and coughed up bits of lung, and all the poison from her
system. In that moment God did a creative miracle, giving her two new lungs! She
got out of bed and went to the piano in the room, and started to play. The family
heard this and came running in. Harriet was just skin and bone and looked like a
skeleton, but she got dressed and went outside. People thought it was her ghost. The
vicar was waiting to toll the bell, as that was the custom in the village when someone
died. But he never got to do that! From then on, her lungs and heart were in good
condition until her death in 1973. In later years, Harriet was also healed of Glaucoma
and weeping Eczema on her legs, which she had had for 10 years.
My mother could remember that the well-known preacher Smith Wigglesworth –
often known as the Apostle of Faith – used to visit the family. Someone once
prophesied in a church meeting that Harriet would travel North, South, East and West
and would be used by God. She eventually inherited the family home in Toynton All
Saints and so they moved back to Lincolnshire.
From the age of seven, I often went to stay with my grandparents in the Summer
holidays. All I have written about so far, happened before I got to know them. We
often went on country walks and Grandma used to teach me the names of flowers and
trees. She showed me how to make miniature gardens in little pots and took me to the
local Methodist Chapel where she was very active. Not only did Hetty (short for
Harriet) preach on the Methodist circuit at different chapels, but she also often ran the
youth work.
She was a woman of many talents. She could garden, bake, sew, paint and decorate
the house, play the piano and organ, and make the costumes for plays she put on with
the youth. I remember a play we did about the song:
Jesus loves the whosoever, from whatever land they be.
And he gently calls them to Him, to salvation full and free.
All the folks from bonny Scotland, and those from the English dales.
Not forgetting dear old Ireland and the rugged hills of Wales.
I was dressed as a person from England in a flowing green dress with a wreath on my
hair, and also carried a shield and a spear like Britannia! The family often didn’t have
much money, but Grandma could make a tasty stew from a few bones and
homegrown vegetables. Instead of buying a new dress or hat, she would change the
hat-band, or add a frill or artificial flower and make a new outfit.
Grandad had been called by God to go into the Methodist ministry, but he grew bitter
through things which had happened in his life, and he had seen in the war, so he
backslid. I have told the story of his miraculous escape from death and coming back
to the Lord in my devotional: A broken vow or: Grandad’s Story. Because he was
running from God, he was very restless and they moved 35 times in their married
life!
Grandma took me once to a special evening arranged by a Temperance movement,
where she recited poetry, from the Gordon League Ballads. She could recite pages
long! I remember one was called Me and Jim, which told how Jim became an
alcoholic, but his life was turned around, when he got saved.
Now Grandma went mostly to the Methodist chapels because they were the only
churches in the countryside, apart from the Church of England, but she was baptised
in the Holy Spirit, and was used prophetically. Not long before my parents were
married, my father had an accident, and was off work for a year. For three years he
would suddenly go unconscious and have to be carried home. Nobody else in the
family supported my parents at this time, only Grandma. One day, she prophesied
over my Dad, saying: “Harry, the Egyptians you have seen on the shore, you will see
them no more!” Sure enough, from that day onwards, my father was healed by the
power of God.
Grandma’s sister, Nancy, held many open-air beach services along the Lincolnshire
coast, including Skegness and Mablethorpe. The evangelist Francis Laming with his
ventriloquist’s doll, Tommy, was often invited to give the Gospel especially to the
boys and girls. Nancy became the Pastor of the Alford Pentecostal Church during the
1950s – 1970s. I well remember those times. Suddenly Grandad Gabriel died, aged
67, and Grandma sold the old house, and came to live with my parents and me in the
South of England. She had also been active in starting the Elim Pentecostal Church in
Guildford, many years before that.
Grandma lived her last few years in a Pentecostal Nursing Home in Bakewell,
Derbyshire, where she died peacefully on 2 February 1973, aged 93. Almost up until
she died, she was giving Bible studies to the other inmates. At her funeral, the
manager of the Home in Bakewell said she was the most godly woman he had ever
met! Sometimes she was called the godly lady with the Angelic name! What a
legacy! Yes, I thank God for the godly, loving Grandma I had and all the things she
taught me. She is now among that “great cloud of witnesses” and I look forward to
meeting her again one day!
Grandad and Grandma, my mother on the right, and Greta.
Below, a more recent photo!
Grandma in the 1960’s