The parish of St. Albert the Great lost its oldest member on July 2. Olivia Gilbertson, who would have been 101 this October, slipped away with the minimal fanfare that was typical of my experience of her. She was a fixture of my childhood at the church: a mainstay of the Rosary Altar Society; primary producer of aprons, embroidered dish towels, knitted baby mittens and other items for the Country Store booth she ran at the festivals; the "library lady" in the school for nearly 3 decades. She was a font of information about the history of the parish, which is a mere 75 years old this year, and her memories will be included in a historical booklet being produced for the reunion events in August.
My creative effort for the day, which will wrap up tomorrow, was the writing and design of a memorial program for her funeral, which will be Thursday, July 8 at 11 am. The funeral will be followed -- how could it not? -- by "funeral lunch" in the Social Hall... where ham and au gratin potatoes join forces with boundless cakes and jello salads to help ease Olivia's daughter Mary Ann's transition from her long and loving role of her mother's caregiver and companion. Wherever there was a photo of Olivia, Mary Ann was right beside or behind her, with the same sweet, intelligent smile she inherited from her mother.
It is my great loss that I never got over to Providence Place, as I had intended, to have a long chat about our common memories of St. Albert's grade school, and the years Olivia and my mother worked together with children in the library. In some corner of Heaven, in the past few days, the two of them are pinning up Charles Schultz posters of the wisdom of Snoopy. Blessed be.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment