Mi tía Verna, del lado norteamericano de mi familia, fue una de las mujeres más santas que he conocido. Su recuerdo quedará imborrable, para siempre, en la memoria y en el corazón de mi esposa, Marcela, mi madre, Susana, y el mío.
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Verna Patrizio (June 1917-April 28, 2011).
Eulogy May 2, 2011
My brother and I thank you all for coming.
Father Buctafurni, Pastor of Saint Donato’s Church, asked that the Eulogy be kept to 5 minutes and be about the spiritual life of a person. Little did he know that when he said keep it to the spiritual life of the person, in my mother’s case, that would take much more then five minutes.
These services are about a profession of our faith. They are about saying goodbye, and my mother believed they should be a celebration of life. The back of the mass card portrays this. The theme is for you to be happy in your memories of her.
She was born into a very religious family with strong spiritual faith. Sundays were special for us which always started with mass and grace before meals. Our catholic religion was truly a way of life and she believed in turning the other cheek. While appeasement may not have always been the right political stance, you always knew where she stood and you could admire her values. I must say there were a few incidents that I can recall when she did have thing to say to some people who really did wrong. She made sure that they remember their human and religious values..
Here faith was a foundation and even with the current issues with our Catholic faith,. When they first started, she reminded me that the values of our religion are important even if people who administered the faith made mistakes. Some may disagree, but there was no questioning her faith in god and values of our religion. She like the phrase that America has 30 thousand laws to enforce the Ten Commandments.
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She gave her time to the church, participating support activities and school activities in my youth. She also never forgot her humble beginnings as always donated to the church and she gave to over 20 charities on a continual basis. An important activity in her life was her rosary group in which she participated weekly for 23 years.
I will conclude this Eulogy with two last items. My father went into World War II in 1943 and returned in 1946. At the time, my mother and four friends at her church organized a weekly novena group for the safety of their husbands. Over the almost three years of weekly prayer, all five of their husbands returned safely from the war. Some may say luck, but we can think otherwise.
At the end of her life, she had advanced Alzheimer’s disease and confined to a wheel chair. It was difficult t to understand god’s plan. About four months ago, one of the nurse’s, Stephanie, came to me and said. “You know your mother always has a smile and appears to kind. She makes it easier to come to work and the attendants like her. And then three weeks ago, one of the other nurse said my mother began signing. We all stopped a listed as she sound like an sweat aged angle. So even in the depts. of a disease, she was able to bring comfort and happiness to others. That is certainly a life to celebrate.
My bother thank all of you for coming and celebrating my mother’s life.
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