News Photo by Darby Hinkley “Ebony & Ivory: A Tale of Two Cultures” is available at Olivet Book & Gift in downtown Alpena, with the majority of every sale going toward teaching farmers in Zimbabwe sustainable practices. The book is a compilation of blog posts by the late Loretta Beyer, a loving Christian who was born to missionaries in what is now Zimbabwe, and taught in Alpena for many years prior to becoming terminally ill and passing in March 2021. Above, Olivet Book & Gift owner Mary Rajasekhar holds up some copies of Beyer’s book.

ALPENA — Loretta Beyer loved people ­– her students, family, and friends in the U.S. and across the globe.

Born to missionary parents in what is now Zimbabwe, Africa, she had a heart for the people she grew up with there.

Loretta Beyer passed away March 27, 2021 after an extended illness, but she left behind a legacy of love.

Fortunately, she blessed her friends with a series of blog posts she began in mid-December 2020, after her cancer became very serious. Now, those blog posts have been turned into a book, called “Ebony & Ivory: A Tale of Two Cultures,” a memoir and tributes by Loretta Beyer.

The book is now available at Olivet Book & Gift in downtown Alpena. In addition to taking home an inspirational collection of Loretta Beyer’s thoughts and sentiments, anyone purchasing a book will be helping farmers in Zimbabwe. The books sell for $14.99, with $10.50 of that going toward a nonprofit organization that helps teach farmers sustainable practices to allow them to make a successful living off the land.

“This book has been compiled, and it is so lovely,” said Mary Rajasekhar, owner of Olivet Book & Gift.

Loretta Beyer’s husband Daryl Beyer will be donating $10.50 of each book sale to an organization called Foundations for Farming. Learn more at foundationsforfarming.org.

“It’s cool that they’re going to take that and make it a continuation of ministry,” Rajasekhar said, adding that Loretta Beyer would have loved for this to be a way of sowing more seed, especially in her beloved homeland of Zimbabwe.

Rajasekhar said she has 15 copies in the store and 100 more on order that should be in by the end of July.

Daryl Beyer said Foundations for Farming is a Christian organization, so there will be a spiritual aspect woven into the teaching as well.

He misses his wife, as do many others in the community. She had a sweet, giving spirit and a kind heart.

“She had a real heart for people,” Daryl Beyer said, adding that she could always be found chatting with people at the grocery store, while he meandered off, knowing it would be a while. He added that she genuinely cared for people and their well-being, be it physical, mental or spiritual.

“She felt as though her work was a ministry, more than just work,” he added. “She felt so fulfilled, like she was mentoring people … She felt like she had the best job in the world.”

Loretta Beyer taught music at Alpena Community College for several decades, as well as teaching piano lessons in her home.

The Beyers were married 41 years. Their children are Krystal Beyer Collins and Brad Beyer. Loretta Beyer was 64 when she passed.

“She knew where she was going, and she said ‘It’s just getting there that’s tough,'” her husband said. “She just accepted it.”

The News publishes Loretta Beyer’s journal entries, with her family’s permission, as part of the newspaper’s rotation of Everyday Faith columnists on Saturdays. That all began with Michelle Smith, good friend of Loretta Beyer and Everyday Faith columnist for The News.

“As I’m reading these blog posts, I’m thinking, ‘Oh my goodness, other people need to hear this! This is incredible,'” Smith said. “Because she was writing such poignant things. You know, at that time in your life, things get pared down when you know you’re facing eternity. It just pares everything down to ‘What is the most important thing?'”

So Smith approached Loretta Beyer to see if she’d be interested, and she was more than happy for the opportunity.

“She just lit up and she got the biggest smile on her face and she said, ‘I would love it,'” Smith said of Loretta Beyer, who was weak and in her hospital bed at the time. “I said, ‘Loretta, your words are going to live on, and the people of Alpena are going to be touched by what you’ve written … It’s so powerful, and you can know this is going to go way beyond what you ever could have imagined.'”

Smith also got the go-ahead from Loretta Beyer’s family, and her columns started running in the paper the week after her funeral.

“Essentially, the columns are those blog posts,” Smith explained. “I’m sending them in every month. I was thrilled when I heard they were putting it into a book.”

Daryl Beyer said Dawn Mantas was instrumental in getting the book together and printed.

Smith added that Loretta Beyer was aware of the book being put together before she passed.

She was a devout Christian and a member of Word of Life Baptist Church in Alpena. Beyer also attended weekly intercessory prayer meetings at New Life Christian Fellowship, where Michelle Smith and her husband Gary Smith are pastors.

“Every Thursday, we would always pray for Zimbabwe and her precious people, because they were on her heart,” Michelle Smith recalled.

“She was a very caring person,” Michelle Smith added. “But she was a very private person. So, actually, for her to say ‘yes’ to this was a big deal.”

“She was a very deep, deep person,” she added. “She was deep spiritually, she was a deep thinker, she was very compassionate. She loved people. You were never a stranger to her. She was very sensitive and intuitive.”

Michelle Smith added that Loretta Beyer sought out those in society who may have needed more support than others.

“She would make sure that, if you were the one that was, kind of, on the outskirts of a gathering, she would reach out to you,”Michelle Smith said. “She would smile at you and make you know that you were noticed and that you were valued.”

Loretta Beyer not only had deep relationships with people — she had a deep relationship with her Lord.

“She prayed for people, and really knew her God,” Michelle Smith said. “And knew that prayer was a very wonderful gift, and she used it regularly. She prayed for people all the time.”

“I am overwhelmed and humbled by the continued outpouring of love,” Loretta Beyer wrote on Dec. 22, 2020. “You being part of my village is what has and will continue to carry me through. I am finding much comfort in His word and wanted to share one in particular that I am declaring and claiming as my own.”

2 Timothy 4:7-8 says, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. Therefore, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me in that day; and not to me only, but them also who love His appearing.”

“God bless all of you,” Loretta Beyer continued. “I love you so much.”

Reach Lifestyles Editor Darby Hinkley at dhinkley@thealpenanews.com or 989-358-5691.