Hazel H. Hopkins (Lansing)

Miss Hazel Hyacinth Hopkins, age 91, passed into the arms of her loving Lord on Sunday, September 27, 2020, at 6:14 pm at Burcham Hills Center for Health & Rehab after a long battle with Parkinson's disease and a 10 day battle with Covid-19.

Hazel was born the 3rd of 14 children to Donald and Alice Hopkins at Sparrow Hospital on March 3, 1929, the year the great depression began. Her Dad Donald was working for Atlas Drop Forge at the time but did other jobs with his many skills through the years to care for his family. Her family stayed with her mom Alice's parents at the beginning of the depression and then lived in Stanton, Michigan until her family moved to Wood Street in Lansing and then to a farm on Mt Hope Road in Okemos for 13 years where she graduated from Okemos High School in 1948. She moved with her family later to Chadwick Road in DeWitt in 1953. She graduated from the Grand Rapids School of Bible and Music in 1970 and then trained at the New Tribes Bible Mission.

Through the years she also worked as a live-in caretaker for the elderly, including for a family in Eagle, Michigan for a while, and also stayed with a few sisters at various times to assist with the care of children when her sisters needed help due to health or birth of other children, including sisters Elizabeth, Esther, and Eunice. Hazel spent several years with Eunice, living on Fenner Road in Laingsburg with her on two occasions. She later moved to East Glen Senior Apartments on Hagadorn in East Lansing before later transitioning to New Life Adult Foster Care Home on Turner Street in DeWitt in 2015, and finally to Burcham Hills Center for Health & Rehab where Eunice later joined her in 2018. Throughout Hazel's entire life, the most important relationship to her was with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and her most important mission was sharing his love and light with others. She was saved in 1944 as she recorded in a small Gideon Bible. She attended several churches through her many years including Inter City Bible Church in Lansing, First Baptist Church of Okemos, East DeWitt Bible Church, South Riley Bible Church in DeWitt, Graham Community Church in Laingsburg, and a long time member of Haslett Baptist (now New Hope Church). She was well known for her master skill with crocheting and other needlework and continued making beautiful creations for others until her hands prevented her from continuing. She was extremely sharp, enormously generous, and had a quiet manner with a sense of humor a lucky few were aware of.

She was preceded in death by her parents Donald and Alice Hopkins, one sister Anna (Duane) Caswell, and six brothers - Theodore (Ruth) Hopkins, James (Verlie) (living Helen) Hopkins, Harwood (living Willow) Hopkins, Paul (Sharon) (Jeannine) Hopkins, Lawrence (Carol) Hopkins, and David (Ruth) Hopkins.

She is survived by six sisters - Elizabeth (Charles) Sheldon, Eunice (deceased Carl) Dugan, Mary (Walt) Lanway, Esther (Harold) Lichte, Rachel (Anthony) Erikson, Faith (Robert) Johnson, as well as many loving nieces, nephews, and friends. Cremation services were arranged by Paradise Funeral Chapel in Lansing and a graveside devotional service was performed by brother-in-law Walt Lanway on Friday, October 9, 2020, at 3:00 p.m. at Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens in Lansing, Michigan. A memorial service is planned for Saturday, October 24, 2020, at 11:00 a.m. at New Hope Church in East Lansing, Michigan to be officiated by Pastor Michael Glenn. For those desiring, contributions may be made to the "Compassionate Care" fund of New Hope Church, 2170 E. Saginaw Hwy, East Lansing, MI 48823, or you may give online at https://www.nhchurch.com/give/.