Eulogy for Irene Westbrook First I would like to thank everyone who is here this morning and to the hundreds of people who visited last night to pay their respects as it truly is a testament to my mother’s life. As I begin today’s Eulogy I thought I would tell you a story of my mother meeting God for the first time at the Gates of Heaven. It’s a lighthearted story, but I believe it touches on the 4 great areas of my mother’s life which were: • her friends and family, • her husband, • her children • and above all her faith in God. Opening Story So we begin. While standing at the gates of Heaven, St. Peter informs my mother that God will soon arrive to determine if Irene is worthy enough to enter and live in eternal happiness and joy with God and his Angels. A few minutes go by and God appears and says to Irene, that in order to live with him and his angels for the rest of eternity, she must first tell him what her greatest achievement was while she was on earth. After listening to her greatest achievement God will then decide if there is more good within that achievement or more bad. If her greatest achievement is at least 50% good; Irene may enter through the Pearly Gates. So Irene starts to think. What was my greatest achievement in life? The first thing that comes to mind was that she was a straight “A” student in school, always striving to do her best and willing to help others with the lessons of the day. But upon reflection Irene does not believe this will be strong enough to get her into heaven. The second thing that comes to her mind was that she lived her life as a Mirth and if you know the Mirth family, that was a very heavy cross to bear, but still she does not know if that is quite enough. Next she thinks, what about all of the close friendships I made and cherished throughout the years: like the Brady’s, the Burrough’s, the Schicker’s, the Nieters and the Metzlers to name a few. But then she realizes that the Schmidt family would be on that list as well, and of course that alone may keep her from eternal happiness. As she tries to make her decision, other thoughts come to mind of how she lived her life, but finally it hits her. She says, God…my greatest achievement in life was my marriage to Dick and the raising of my 6 children. God says…Irene, I know you are nervous as you have a lot riding on this answer. However you must decide between the 2 answers you have given me. Is your greatest achievement your marriage to Dick or was it the raising of your 6 children? Irene starts to reflect upon her marriage, of how she and Dick: • Managed to stay together for 56 years, even in the tough times • How they raised and supported 6 children • How they became very involved within their community, especially within the soccer community, always giving of their time and support. • How together they lived a very humble and religious life. • How they attended church every Sunday and met with prayer groups frequently • How they fed and gave to the poor. • And how they positively touched many lives throughout the years But as she thought a little more she said to herself…Do I really want to rest my hopes of eternal Life in Heaven based on the love I shared with Dick? So Irene decides that there is power in numbers and says to God, although my marriage was very strong I would have to say my greatest accomplishment in life was the raising of my 6 children. So God says OK…let’s begin the judgment process. Remember as we look into the raising of all 6 children you must have at least a score of 50% or better. So God looks at how Steve has lived his life thus far and says I have good news for you. I see more good than bad in Steve; therefore I am giving him a score of 60. Irene says that’s great news, because truthfully I thought his score might be a little lower. Irene says, let’s look at Scott next. God says…Wow, I’m sorry to say this to you Irene but this son has really hurt your chances of entering the Gates of Heaven. His practical jokes are tiring and he really needs to spend more time in church. His score is a 10. Shocked at the score Irene says let’s move on and look at Patti. God says. Oh look how wonderful she has turned out. She is such a caring person who is willing to do anything for anybody. In fact I do not even think I could bear the cross of running the parish picnic for as long as she has. What an undertaking! And she really is the rock of your family. I will give her a 75. Next God looks at Craig’s life and says I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I love how Craig worships me through his daily reading of the Bible and his weekly attendance at Mass; but I have to frown at how wild his lifestyle was when he was younger. I am giving Craig a score of 55. Next up is Chris. God says I’m sorry but I feel that Chris is cheating all of his customers with the prices he charges for his pizzas. To me it’s like getting rich off of the poor and I cannot stand for this. Chris’s score is a 35. God states: you only have 1 more child and you are currently under the 50% requirement at this time. Irene says that’s OK I have faith in my last child, Mark. God looks into Marks life and says he has led a fairly good and productive life. He has a strong marriage and he is well liked by his peers. I am going to give him a score of 65. With that God adds up all of the individual scores and comes to a total of 295. Sadly he says, I am sorry but your overall average comes to only 49% therefore I cannot allow you to enter into the kingdom of Heaven at this time. I believe you will need to spend some time in purgatory. Irene is completely shocked and says to God, PLEASE let me see your paper. She then takes out her trusty red pen; circles God’s mathematical mistake and points out that her children’s individual scores add up to precisely 300 and not 295. She then states that 300 divided by 6 equals exactly 50% and she proudly walks through the Gates of Heaven. Stage 2 I think we all can enjoy the ending to this story because we really can picture Irene doing the math and making corrections. And of course she had that way of letting you know where your mistakes were. But that was the teacher in her, and our family is better because of it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Irene’s life, as you know, became completely entwined with my father’s over the years. As a result of their early relationship Irene converted from the Lutheran faith to the Catholic religion prior to their marriage in 1957. Since that moment in time, Dick and Irene shared a joyous and wonderful life together. As a result of their love for one another they were blessed with 6 children and 19 grandchildren. Irene, however, quickly became the real Head of the Household as she set the true tone for how the family would interact, communicate and flourish. And as you can imagine, running a household with 5 boys and 1 girl was no easy feat. Irene always set the tone and everyone followed her lead. And of course she did a wonderful job in raising all of us. Together Irene and Dick made many friends over the years. How could they not, as they both were very outgoing, caring and fun to to-be-around. As such Dick and Irene became lifelong friends with some of my dad’s high school buddies, such as the Burrough’s, the Schickers and the Brady’s. Other great friends were made through soccer like the Nieters and the Metzlers, and still other friends by way of work, as is the case with the Stephens and the Schmidts. These friends often came over to play cards and enjoy each other’s company and of course Irene was always the score keeper. Partly because she had to make sure things were correct, and partly because you could read her penmanship as my mom always took great pride in her penmanship. Anyway Irene always kept the record books over the years and she never threw away any of the results. In fact, she has filing cabinets filled with notebooks that date back into the 60’s with who played, who won etc… And if you ever questioned her on who won the last time, she was able to look back through those notes and show you. Needless to say, Irene very much cherished her friendships and her friends cherished her. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ But Irene’s best friend was her husband and she was Dick’s biggest fan. Irene became the coaches, coach or as some would also say the First Lady of St. Louis Soccer. Their relationship was strong as they deeply cared for one another. They did everything together and they were lost without one another. Irene went to just about every soccer game Dick ever coached unless of course it was too rainy or windy as she did not like to get her hair messed up. The support she provided my father allowed him to be a great success both on and off the field. And my father knows that she was a loving and loyal wife. The only thing stronger than Irene’s relationship with her husband was her relationship with God. She led a very religious way of life as I’ve already mentioned, and she was always willing to share her good fortune with the church and those less fortunate than her. She volunteered her time as well. One of her biggest time-consuming projects she ever undertook was the running the weekly BINGO for the St. Vincent’s Church. Every week Irene ran that Bingo for the church and every week Dick was the caller. This was a yearlong commitment and I do not believe they ever missed a week. Together Irene and Dick raised over $100,000 net profit for the church that year. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ So as we celebrate Irene’s life we must not forget how much she truly loved her family, her friends, her husband and her church and how much we all loved her. We will miss you mom.
Posted on: Sat, 05 Oct 2013 04:05:41 +0000
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