Earlier this week our dear Treva Koler left the body. Treva is mother of Reverend Larry Koler and a kriyaban; she has been a member of our Seattle Group for these past forty years. Treva has seven children, and a recent family gathering counted nearly forty family members; amazing to think from two to 37 in a lifetime. Treva was 90 years old when she peacefully passed, surrounded by family. Until the end she had an active intelligence and keen awareness.
For the past many years when seeing Treva after a Service she always approached me with a beautiful smile, and I felt God’s great love flowing through me for her. She always had some piece of news she had seen in the papers or on television that she found interesting and spoke of with animation, or she would cut out some humorous cartoon to share with me that she found funny and insightful. When she first came to Mother Hamilton, Mother would often observe with admiration that Treva had raised her seven children—for many years she did so on her own due to circumstances outside her control. Mother, herself a single mother of three for many years, spoke very highly of Treva. Most of her children went on to earn college degrees and became successful adults—a great achievement.
Treva performed a wonderful service for us when she drove to Shoreline and Mt. Vernon to help Carla organize Mother’s Talks. We were in the early stages of getting Mother’s Talks ready for publishing and Treva’s commitment and organizing skills made a significant contribution to that end—methodically sorting, labeling and checking titles against lists. She would arrive and after we had some pleasant conversation she would get right to work and be steady at it until Carla prepared lunch, then she would continue working steady until it was time to go. She was conscientious and detailed and could be relied on to keep things sorted—attributes I am sure she honed while working for many years in a doctor’s office.
I do not think Treva would mind my sharing an experience she once had. While giving birth to one of her children Treva died. Between the time she died and was revived she had what is now called a near death experience. During the time her body was dead she found herself in a beautiful field, and what she felt was so perfect she never wanted to leave. Then she thought of her small children who needed her, and with great reluctance she knew she needed to return for them; at that moment she was aware she was back in the hospital room and heard the doctor say, “She’s breathing again!” She thought to herself, “Oh, shoot!”, sorry to have left that place of peace and beauty.
Like many who reach the autumn and winter time of life, Treva had a persistent question, “Why am I still here?” It was a question that did not leave her alone and speaks to something we all must wrestle with. For many years it can seem our lives follow along a certain track: education, work, raising a family, looking to accumulate enough to see us through the rest of our lives. Treva always had a strong desire to do what was correct, a moral and dharmic sense for right action. So, when life became less about doing for others in the family and at work, it left the question, “Why am I here?” Which relates to the question, “Who am I?” “Is there purpose beyond these normal tracks of life, which can seem to run out before physical life does?” Ultimately, this is a spiritual question, and one we are greatly benefited to make inquiry into and find an answer from the deeper Self—sooner rather than later.
I will miss our dear Treva whose bright and inquiring mind always brought forward some new subject, her willingness to serve, and whose legacy of family will carry on far into the future. I know she was ready to move on into her new life, and she will be surprised by how many there are to greet her in welcome. She was looking forward to seeing her father once again—but she is greatly loved by many—both on this side of veil and the other.