RUMFORD – Edith M. Wentzell, 82, of 35 Young’s Park Road, Mexico, went to be with the Lord and her beloved husband, Harding, at the Rumford Hospital, Rumford, on Sunday, July 2, after many years of failing health.

She was the daughter of Joseph and Myrtle Duplisea Taylor. She was born April 16, 1924, in Weld. She attended schools in Weld and Dixfield, graduating from Dixfield High School in 1943. After high school she worked in Berst Fosters until her marriage in Rumford on June 16, 1946, to the late Harding O. Wentzell of the Mexico Fire Department, who died in the line of duty responding to a fire call in Rumford on May 5, 2003.

She was a member of the First Baptist Church in Mexico. When she was able, she taught in Sunday School, Child Evangelism, the American Sunday School Union, the Bible Club Movement, and also served in many capacities in the Lord’s work.

Since the death of Harding, Edie had been receiving help from her “Angels on Earth” Laura Allen and Gayle Therrien and the staff at Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice from the former Dixfield office. Her family will be forever grateful for all that they did for her.

Since Harding’s passing she had what everyone called her “open heart ministry.” Although she was unable to get out for visitation, she would make phone calls to families who had lost loved ones just to let them know that someone out there knew how they were feeling, and that she was praying for them. Her morning ritual was to read the obituaries and make her phone calls, a lot of her calls were made to people that she didn’t even know.

She is survived by their children, Gary and Charlene Wentzell of Mexico and Eileen Thompson of Roxbury, and her dog “Patches”; grandchildren, Toby Thompson and Wendy Voter, Paula Wentzell and Chris Thibeault, Gary Todd Wentzell, Heather and Neil Sorensen and Jenny Lloyd; great-grandchildren, Angela Wentzell and Nick Theriault, Tayla and Alexis Cunningham, Emily Gallant, Samantha, Hunter and William Sorensen; two brothers, Dewey Taylor of Dixfield and St. Petersburg, Fla., and Stanton and Maribeth Taylor of Willard, Ohio. She was predeceased by a great-great-granddaughter, McKenzie Rae Wentzell in 2001.