By SANDRA THAMES / Community Columnist

Rodger and Lois Offet, well-known Alabaster residents for over 40 years, are still active, productive folks.

One week after they moved here in 1975 they and their family began attending First Baptist Church of Alabaster.

Several generations of families have been through the church nursery since Mrs. Lois began volunteering there.

Lois knows more children’s books and tall adventures than most.

Parents of seven children, Tim, Sue, Ruth, Sandy, Joel, Julie and Billy, they have lost Tim to cancer and Billy in a car accident.

They have 11 grandchildren, 19 great-grandchildren and one on the way.

Everyone is loved at the Offets’.

Rodger Offet worked for Eckrich Sausage Company for 20 years in Kalamazoo, Mich. and Fort Wayne, Ind.

He was asked to move to El Paso, Texas or Atlanta, Ga.

Offet tried Atlanta, didn’t like it and said, “Find us another place.”

Lucky for all of us, Eckrich wanted to open a sales area near Birmingham, Ala.

A total of 22 years were put in with the sausage company in various locations.

Mrs. Lois is a walker – two miles each morning with her neighbor and friend Jean Scherf.

They’ve been doing this for over 30 years, from their houses to the site of the old Thompson Plantation. (“We would pick up cans,” says Offet).

Now on Saturday mornings at 6:30 a.m., Mrs. Offet takes two bags and heads to the high school (occasionally accompanied by Mr. Rodger and his pet “pooch”).

She picks up “garbage or trash” in one bag and recyclables in the other.

One morning she was stopped by the police because someone reported her activities as suspicious.

They say that their favorite thing to do now is to eat and sleep, but in my opinion it’s much more than that: flowers, plants, housework, being friendly, open and active in their community and church.

The example of a close, loving family (losses and blessings) is what Rodger and Lois Offet have lived.

“The blessings far outweigh the losses,” says Mrs. Lois. “We have been truly blessed.”