Lillie M. Keizer (Mother Borders) was born to Toney Parker and Sallie Wooten in Wilson, North Carolina, on July 4, 1931. She was the youngest of seven children: four boys and three girls. Her father was a sharecropper, so the family grew up working the fields, chopping tobacco, growing watermelons, and raising pigs and chickens. Lillie was fortunate enough to go to high school and complete the 11th grade, a big achievement back then. Lillie gave her life to Christ at Friendship Primitive Baptist Church in Lucama, North Carolina, under the leadership of Pastor Dickson.

Lillie was a country girl with big aspirations. In 1956, she moved to Brooklyn, New York, and stayed with her sister Mary until she decided she wanted a taste of independence and moved to Boston. She met and married John Matthew Borders Jr., a member of the Coast Guard, in 1957. While her husband was on active duty, she returned to New York City with Mary, where she gave birth to her first born, John III. Ultimately, John M. Borders Jr divorced Lillie. While working at the Big M nightclub in Boston's South End, she met a jazz singer and drummer named Mike Squire, and they had a son and named him Michael. Lillie worked as a machinist at Raytheon in the early 1960s, where she met and married Milton Keizer. Their marriage ended about 1970.

She worked hard to provide for her two children as a single mother. She taught her children how to cook and clean, and that love was the highest value to live by. An extrovert at heart, Lillie loved being with others. She enjoyed music and dancing, house parties, and playing various card games like Tonk and Bid-Whist. After years of partying, she rededicated her life to Christ at Morning Star Baptist Church, where her son was the new pastor. She never had a cigarette or drink again.

Lillie possessed a matriarchal character. As she supported her son at Morning Star, Lillie took on a new moniker, one marked by her compassion and care for both young and old. She became affectionately known as "Mother Borders".

Her home at 221 Mass Ave. was a haven for college students from a wide variety of racial and geographic backgrounds. She dispensed her wisdom and maxims along with baked chicken, stewed beef, string beans, and sweet potatoes from her closet of a kitchen. Under her tutelage and cafe, her students all grew spiritually and went on to be successful in their various fields. Mother Borders was also a very active member of the Senior ministry at Morning Star.

Her maternal care led to scores adopting her as their spiritual mother. There are just too many to mention. Every visitor to the Copley at Stoughton registered as her son or daughter. Whenever her son came to see her, the receptionist said, "Your sister or brother is upstairs." Birthday parties were a struggle for Bishop and Sandra to plan because Lillie never wanted to leave anyone out. Her love and care whispered through her last breath.

Lillie survived breast cancer at 92 years old, but dementia ultimately took her from us on Sunday, March 22, at age 94. She lived a full, wonderful, righteous life. She outlived all her siblings. She became the matriarch of the family to her nieces and nephews. She will remain the Lilly of the Valley. She leaves to mourn her passing, her son, Bishop John Matthew Borders III, and her daughter-in-law, Sandra, who took care of her in her waning years, her granddaughter Leylana, her grandson John IV, along with his wife Francisca, her granddaughter Brittany, along with her husband Brandon, great-grandchildren Madison, Bailey, John V, Malcolm, and Preston.

She also leaves her nieces Loretta Gonsalves (Earl), Annie Doris Gilchrist, Barbara Witherspoon, Shirley Honey (Lynwood), Mary Bynum (William), and her nephews Walter Darnell Cooper, James Cooper, Gary Cooper and Maurice L. Bowden, Dorothy Parker, Gloria Butler, Kathie Athy, Gregory Parker, Tony Parker, and Walter Parker Jr. and a host of grand-nieces and Nephews, relatives and friends, in addition to a large church family.