Edith Rachel Merritt Seville Schaeffer was born in Wenzhou, China, to missionary parents working in the China Inland Mission.
Though she lived in China only until the age of six, she retained vivid memories and a life-long love of China. The family moved back to the States and, while attending Beaver College, she met Francis Schaeffer. They were married in 1935. He had three pastorates in the States in the then Bible Presbyterian Church, with her always completely involved. Their daughters Priscilla, Susan and Deborah were born during those years while their son Franky was born in Switzerland in 1952.
L’Abri
In 1948 they moved to Switzerland, sent to Europe by their denomination to support Bible-believing pastors and churches. They found that they were spending a growing amount of their time simply speaking with people in their home, and in 1955 they resigned from the mission to live by faith and to start L’Abri, which they hoped would be a shelter from the storms of the 20th century and a place where people could get honest answers to their questions and also see the reality of the existence of God exhibited in their lives. Their basis was simply the Bible, and throughout their lives they never wavered from the entire truthfulness and trustworthiness of God’s word.
Vivacious personality
L’Abri was the fruit of Edith Schaeffer’s gifts and personality as much as those of her husband. She was a dynamic, vivacious person with enough love and sparkle to fill any room, always well-groomed and attractively dressed. In another life she might have been a dancer or a dress designer. She loved beauty and was bursting with creativity. Meal lists, prayer lists, work lists were never just lists, always works of art; meals were never just plates of food, always attractively presented, with flowers and candles on the table. Because of her, L’Abri was a home, never an institution. She had a remarkable love for people, always found time for each individual, and created the warm, welcoming, hospitable environment that was at the heart of L’Abri. She was an irrepressible communicator — in her Monday morning talks to start the weekly day of prayer, on the telephone, in her massive quarterly ‘family letters’, in her 17 books, and in countless conversations in the kitchen, in the garden, on the stairs, in the car, in her office, from early morning until late at night. And she prayed, and prayed, and prayed. One thing that left a lasting impression on me was that I never saw her strike back after an unkind remark and never heard her utter a sarcastic or cynical word.
The Schaeffers moved to Rochester, Minnesota, in 1983 for his cancer treatments. He died there in 1984. She continued to live in Rochester, involved in L’Abri, the local church, her own speaking and writing, and increasingly with artists and musicians there and in New York City. When her health began to fail she returned to Switzerland, where she lived in her own home and was cared for during her last 13 years by Debby and Udo Middelmann, her daughter and son-in-law.
Limitless time for people
Os Guinness, who was virtually part of the family in the early 70s, summed her up best: ‘I have never met such a great heart of love, and such indomitable faith, tireless prayer, boundless energy, passionate love for life and beauty, lavish hospitality, irrepressible laughter, and seemingly limitless time for people — all in a single person’.
