EULOGY FOR MOM
Stephanie Abbott Schmitt
September 11, 2014
I didn't know I was going to be doing this until about two minutes before Reverend Purdy started speaking so I don't really have anything prepared but I will say this. On March 28th, in Marshfield in the year of 1938, a woman was born. She was wonderful little girl, she loved her mom, she loved her sisters and her brothers, she loved her dad, she loved her life in Marshfield. She grew up and met a man named Norman and after just a very short time, just a couple of weeks actually, they got married and started a family of their own.
They traveled. I was born shortly after they got married right in St. Charles. My siblings were a little luckier. They were born in exotic places like Plattsburgh, New York and Mountain Home, Idaho, and Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma. But one thing Mom never ever lost was her love, the love for her family that always shone. Her love for adventure - she loved to travel. She always swore that there was gypsy in thier blood. They came over from the old country and there was Romani gypsy in their blood and she loved to go.
She loved to go. She loved to travel all over this world. We went to Turkey and to Germany and traveled all over this country. If somebody said go, Mom was the first one in the car and she was ready. You didn't even have to have a destination. All you had to do was get into the car, start the engine and if you saw a road, drive down it. That's how Mom lived her life, her whole life.
She loved life, she embraced life. But the part of life she loved most was her family: her husband, her children, her grandchildren, her sisters, her brothers - Lord how she loved us all. And when the time came that she had to part with Dad a part of Mom, a part of that spark, a part of that light, a part of that life was extinguished, and it never came back.
Sixteen months ago Mom came to live with me because they determined she couldn't stay by herself anymore. It was a really hard thing for her to do and I know that. She was with me for 16 months and two days, and I celebrated every month. It wasn't always easy and the reason was because Mom and I are so much alike. We're both a little hard headed and we’re both a little stubborn but one thing I will say is that it was the greatest honor I have ever had was taking caring of my Mom for those 16 months. I fought. I fought very hard because they didn't want me to do it. They told me no, she can't do that. She has to be in a nursing home and she has to be in a nursing home where the doors are locked because of that gypsy blood in Mom. If you put her somewhere that she didn't want to be she tried to get away. She was always trying to run away. She ran away from my house one time. No Lie! She grabbed her purse and her coat and up the driveway she went. She wasn't even supposed to be walking. And pretty soon here she came back and she said "I'm sorry, Stef." I said, "What made you come back Mom?" and she said "Nobody would stop and give me a ride." You have to understand I live on a dead end gravel road; there is nobody to give her a ride but if somebody would have come by she would've had her thumb out and she would've said “Where are we going now?”
She loved adventure and she loved life. She loved her children and her grandchildren but I have to say she loved Dad the most. As much as she loved all of us, Dad was the spark in her heart, the light in her eyes, and when he died she missed him terribly. She told me Friday she was ready to go, she was ready - she's been ready a long time. Reverend Purdy said eventually the good memories would outweigh the sadness but that never happened with Mom. Every day she was sad because she missed my dad so much. But now as I said the morning she has my dad and together they are walking through eternity. Together they are in that mansion.
Pastor Larry said something that stuck with me on Monday. He said for us it is such a long time, but in eternity there is no time. So for them we are all there together at the same time. And that was such a profound thing because I thought “so Dad didn't have to wait. We have to wait but Dad didn't have to.” Mom won't have to. When we get there it will be like she just got there and Dad just got there and her mom just got there and Jessica just got there and everyone who has gone before. We’re all there at the same time because in eternity there is no time. What a great thing. What a wonderful gift.
There's one other thing. In death there is no sting because of the gift that Christ gave us. In death there is no sting. There is no sting for Mom. The sting is in the hurt that we feel as we're left behind and we have to wait for our time to join the ones that have gone before us. It's going to be a long wait but we have to do it the way Mom would have wanted: full of life, love and adventure because that's what she was all about. She was about life, love and adventure.
Randy, she was so proud of you, her son, the pastor. And then there was Catrina. Why do you know, Catrina knows more about insurance than anyone else in this whole world? Why, every insurance company would be just gifted to have her. And then there's Sabrina "Does anybody know how many people she has under her?", "Anybody know how high up in Hussmann she really is?" And she would work those things into any conversation. You could be playing a game of Yahtzee, which by the way, we played a lot of. Some nights there would be 26, 24, who knew how many games we were going to play as long as there was a bowl of popcorn and a margarita on the table and a Yahtzee scorepad she was happy. She worked those things into the conversation because she was so very proud. She was. She loved her family. Not only was she proud of her blood family but all of her in-laws, her sons-in-law, her daughter-in-law, and her grandchildren. She told me how much she loved her grandchildren. The one thing you can take away is that Mom loved all of you dearly. She's going to be missed but now she's happy. She's happy. And that's something she hasn't been in a very long time. I love you Mom.
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