In Memoriam: Betty Mason Arthurs

Betty Mason Arthurs

I met Betty Arthurs around 1990 at the Tempe Christian Writers Club. A friendly extrovert, she encouraged the writers by pointing out the excellent passages in their writing and making helpful suggestions for improvements.

Another member of TCWC invited several members to form a smaller, more focused critique group. We called ourselves Tuesday’s Children, because we met every Tuesday morning–for almost thirty years.

In 2015 we started this blog, Doing Life Together. Betty was one of the founding members.

She was a registered nurse with a degree from Roberts Wesleyan College. She was forced to retire early because of rheumatoid arthritis, but that didn’t stop her from being a wonderful wife and devoted mother of two children. She wrote freelance articles and was working on a novel based loosely on her adventures in nursing school. She loved to laugh and pull practical jokes.

Betty passed away on January 22, 2022 after a long illness. Today her friends and family celebrated her life with a lunch at their church.

To continue remembering Betty, I’ve compiled some of her most popular posts on Doing Life Together:

• Married 50 Years and Never a Dull Moment
• Life is Fragile. . . Handle with Prayer
• Abortion. . . I Was There in the Beginning
• Aged Senses for Better. . . Mostly Worse
• A Dad, A Daughter and a Butterfly
• “Hi Mom!” A Mother’s Legacy
• Can Muslim and Christian Neighbors Be Friends?
• Mother Guilt. . . the Gift that Keeps On Giving
• Coffee, Marriage and Wild Complexity
• Killer Bees, in the Middle of a Miracle