Happy Birthday, 'Gert Ann!

Eulogy for My Mother, Margaret Ann Fitzpatrick Coughlin. December 11, 2003. St. Mary’s Church, Painesville, Ohio.

We would like to thank all our family members, our  friends, our relatives for their kind wishes and prayers for my Mom over these past few days. Thanks especially to Aunt Kay and Uncle Bill Coughlin, to all the Coughlin cousins, to the Brock cousins, and all the Fitzpatrick cousins, who are as numerous as the stars in the sky. Thanks to our Euclid friends, our Chardon friends, our Mentor friends, our Valley City friends, our friends from work. Thanks to my brother Denny, his wife Sherri, and children Marlo, Sean, Kit, and Cory, who flew in from California. And to Marie and Michelle Zaremba, and Mike and Amy Zaremba, all who came up from  southern Ohio. Thanks especially to Mary Ellen, who spent the last night of Mom’s life by her side in the hospital. And to Kevin and his boys, Ryan, Tommy, and Cody, who brought Mom into their house the last year of her life.

Those of you who saw my Mom’s obituary in Tuesday’s News-Herald probably had yourself a good chuckle. They listed my Mom as 70 years old, yet born on November 10, 1923. So much for the “New Math”! By that reckoning I’m 45 years old again. My Mom lied about her age as long as I can remember, but I have to hand it to the News-Herald!

In the last 8 years or so, many things have been taken from my Mom, many things lost. In 1996 she was diagnosed with breast cancer. In 1997, my Dad died. That same year Mom was diagnosed with macular degeneration, which led to virtual blindness. A year later she was diagnosed with colon cancer. These tribulations would have devastated a lesser person, but my Mom accepted her life with an amazing grace. She maintained her wonderful spirit, her positive attitude, her joyfulness, her mischievousness and sense of fun right up to the end. Of all her virtues, I admired most her unfailing sense of gratitude. A couple years ago I wrote this poem about her:

“My Mother’s Grace”

 -for Margaret Ann Fitzpatrick Coughlin

My Mother never holds

onto evil, suffering, hate,

resentment.

In her mind’s eye

is always centered

                Gratitude

joy and fun:

                It is the most amazing

                charism I have ever seen.

The day my Mother dies

she will have in front of her

not pain, regret, or fear,

                But the last wonderful thing.

                *              *              *

                                                               

And that last wonderful thing was, of course, gratitude. Gratitude for her life, her family, and her faith.

Mom with brothers Fenton (Skip) and Don (circa 1940)