Sunday, October 3, 2021
Tia,
I am thankful for the loving care you provided to Mom. Mom enjoyed your conversations and the care you took in combing her hair. I know that you being there was Providential. After Mom passed away I promised you I would continue to come by daily to see you. You told me the stories of your childhood living in Niederwald, your parents, whom you stayed with until they passed, your sister who died young and your father searching for medicine for her and paying for it with baby chickens. You spoke about your husband, staying with him throughout his suffering and not being able to speak to him in the hospital before he passed and the joy it brought you that he was able to see a Priest for confession and Anointing of the Sick before he passed. Your dreams of your brother, who died after the auto accident, sitting around the dinner table. The associations you belonged to at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church were very important to you as well as reciting by memory Luke 1:46-55, even until the last time I visited you when we shared one of your favorite snacks, Vienna sausages with crackers. Praying for everyone everyday, your family, the family at Riverside as well as mine. You survived Covid when others at Riverside, most of our Rosary participants, did not. I would visit you through the window of your room. You would give a blessing before I left. You and I would recite the Rosary or Chaplet in the rooms of sick residents, which would bring comfort to them and their families. I know this because the families would tell me as well as staff at Riverside. You won 2 Gold medals in wheelchairs races at the Senior Olympics at UT! Riverside was proud of that. We bought a cell phone so you could stay in touch with your family in the Dallas area, Austin, San Antonio and Bryan. Staying in contact with them was important to you.
There is so much more to be said.
You were a prayerful, humble and sacrificial person who cared for others before yourself. You touched the lives of so many people in a way known by them and God.
Until we meet again,
Thank you, Tia!
