When my inlaws moved to town, she and Marvin, Marilyn and Gary, befriended them and played cards and dominoes with them. Eventually, it was only Lois and Dave left of that crew. They became very fast friends. They both had children in Maryland, so they made the trip together a few times.
Lois was the 3-4 grade teacher at our parish school when I arrived here in 1992. She would not retire before she had taught all my children. I remember being a little worried about my son’s distractedness. She told me “There’s nothing wrong with that boy. He’ll be fine.” She said that they would be talking about something in class, and she could see that she had lost him. Finally, his hand would shoot up and he’d ask about something they had covered 20 minutes prior. The class would collectively groan, but she said he’d required time to think about it. She was right. He was fine.
She was thrilled, I think, that Lauren followed her into the teaching vocation. And when Bekah and Andy adopted Kloe and Emmett, she couldn’t have been more thrilled. She attended their Baptisms and commented to me all the time on Kloe in particular: what a wonderful young lady she had become.
She was like a grandma to all my children’s children. She came to nearly every single family event. And during the horrible days of COVID, she was in our pod. She, Dave, Cindi and I played more games of Liverpool than any of us (except Dave) wanted! Lois always hated hand number four, where she frequently got clobbered. And she didn’t like it when the jokers didn’t come her way! Most Sundays we had brunch at the house, she joined us.
She worked nonstop at our parish. Confirmation banners? That was her specialty. Dinners for funerals? She always had something cooked and helped with serving. Sewing up LWML quilts? I think she’s still got a ton of material in her house. Oh, it never stopped. She seemed to have a PLACE there at St. Paul’s and it’s going to be really wretched to be there without her.
I’ll not forget, either, the horrid day her niece, Rachel, died giving birth. She and Marvin were just leaving when Pr. Burdick called and I had to run out and break that unthinkable news to them. We prayed together and wept together that day.
She was so proud of her two boys, and she had every right to be. They both flew into town and spent all her final hours with her. She was blessed not only in David and Jonathan, but in Maggie and Sanna, and the very joy of her life, her grandchildren: Charles, Anya, and Eric. She was proud of Charles sticking up for Lutheranism at his Catholic High School, and then when he went to Notre Dame, she wore a shirt with their logo and made it up for some of the games. She could tell you all about Anya’s not taking nonsense from anyone in soccer, and about Eric’s brilliant and inquisitive mind. All three of the grandchildren inherited MORE than their fair share of smarts from their ridiculously talented parents, and she was so, so proud of them. And she delighted in the way her boys constantly teased each other: Jonathan sending David pictures of snakes and David sending Jonathan pictures of spiders. And how many times did she quote her mother-in-law to us? “I’m just sitting here so you all can have a game.”
Lois, you will be sorely missed. You were such a good friend to us all. I can’t wait to see you again!
