In her nearly 72 years as a charter member of her church, Shirley Lake has maybe missed a handful of services.
"I'll give you 10, I may have missed 10 Sundays in my entire life," Lake laughed. She broke her elbow in 2009, and she's been sick once since then - that's the last time she can remember missing a day.
Lake turns 80 on Saturday as the longest-tenured member of St. Timothy Lutheran Church. If she didn't show up, the congregation would take notice.
Without her, the music would be lost. It would be nearly impossible for someone to walk in and fill her many roles the way she does. There might not be an organist to play through the liturgical service or someone to direct the choir and play the piano.
"I have to be on top of everything during the service," Lake said. "If they say something in a spot they aren't really supposed to say something, I have to know and be ready for that."
She doesn't feel 80. She displays the same commitment to her church she did as a teenager with long, copper-blond hair, singing in the choir.
"That's how I met her, that's how I always see her," said church member Michele Bailey.
St. Timothy's is where Lake discovered her love of music. She tagged along to her mother's choir practices when she was little - mostly because she didn't have a sitter and her father was working -- but she didn't need coloring books or toys to keep entertained.
"Even then, I was able to sing alto and soprano. So, I would sing with them," she said. "When they would get to the final part of the rehearsal, the choir director would say 'Shirley, now you stop singing, because you're not going to sing with us Sunday.'"
At the time, the church was in an abandoned chapel in South Charleston, rented by St. Paul's Lutheran Church to grow a congregation. The building was held together by cables and not very stable.
"When a train would go by on Sunday mornings, the building would go like this," Lake said as she waved her hands back and forth. "It was sort of amusing."
In the little chapel, she joined the church's first children's choir. She started taking piano lessons at age 6, and by 12 could play the opening for Sunday school. By then, the church had a new building next to Thomas Memorial to accommodate the expanding congregation -- up to about 100 people.
At 18, Lake started taking organ lessons. After her father died, though, the family could no longer afford the lessons.
"I just kept practicing at church and hoped to improve my playing," she said, "From there, I just kept getting busier and busier by playing at church and it's what I loved to do."
When the church lost an organist, she would fill in. The Lutheran church considers music to be the word of God set to song.
"I feel my role as taking what God gives us in music or in song and presenting it to the congregation whether it's a Sunday morning or Wednesday night, a funeral or a wedding, to bring the full beauty of God's word in music to them," Lake said.
To prepare for a service, Lake carefully searches through music to find something fitting for the message. She practices at least twice a week, and also with the choir, and arrives at least an hour and a half before the service begins.
"If God's purpose is for me to wear one hat, or two hats or three hats, then yes, I will do that," Lake said. "I'm glad to do it if that's his purpose for me and I feel like right now I am doing his purpose."
As a charter member, she has seen the church through some of its hardest times.
"There were times when the church was in bad shape and very easily could have gone under, but she was faithful - always here, always helping out - and doing whatever was necessary," said the Rev. Richard Mahan, who served the church from 1972 to 2012.
To keep up with growing membership, the church sold its property next to Thomas Memorial in the early 2000s and built a new 26,000-square-foot facility on Lawndale Lane off Corridor G.
At times, the choir has boasted more than 30 people, but right now, as the church changes pastors, the congregation faces some uncertainty. It's nothing Lake hasn't witnessed before, though. She's seen every pastor and member who has walked through St. Timothy's doors.
"There's a lot of love for the people of the congregation, and not just for the people here, but for the people outside, too," Lake said. "I'd love to see it continue to grow with the same kind of friendly, loving, Christian people."
The thought of leaving or finding a new church has never crossed her mind.
"I keep saying that I think I should pass out on the organ bench and land on the keys and they'll say 'Shirley hit a wrong note again," she laughed.
She believes people will always remember her for her dependability.
"I believe by people looking up there and seeing her on that bench Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, when she's sick, when she's tired, no matter what it is, she's there, they think, 'if she can make that commitment, then I can make that commitment,'" Mahan said.
Reach Jennifer Gardner at jennifer.gardner@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5102 or follow @jenncgardner on Twitter.