Mary Lewandowski

LEWANDOWSKI, Mary Age 95. September 2, 2013. Beloved wife of the late Max. Loving mother of Carol (John) Mueller, Joanne (Clifford) Pacurari and Denise Winters (Michael Bewley). Proud grandmother of Michael (Janice) Mueller, Gary (Kimberly) Mueller, Christopher (Beth) Pacurari and Jennifer Pacurari and great-grandmother of Sarah, Heather, Emily, Grant, Katherine and Max. Dear sister of Andrew Birosh and the late Annie, Kate, Verna, Joseph, George, Betty, Michael, Margaret and John. Visitation Wednesday 3-9pm with 7:00pm Scripture Service at Wujek-Calcaterra & Sons, Inc. 36900 Schoenherr at Metro Parkway (16 Mile). Instate Thursday 10:00am until 10:30am Mass at St. Athanasius Catholic Church (18720 13 Mile Rd., Roseville - between Kelly Rd. & Groesbeck). Interment Resurrection Cemetery. Share memories with the family at their "On-Line Guest Book" @ WujekCalcaterra.com. Eulogy For Mary Lewandowski April 23, 1918 – September 2, 2013 Mary Birosh. Mary Lewandowski. Sister. Mom. Grandmother. Babcia. Across the generations, she was known by different names. Each of us would be fortunate to live long enough to be recognized by so many titles, because it would be a recognition of how many people's lives we would have touched. To me, when I was a child, she used to be "Grandma Lewandowski." And when my great-grandmother passed, Grandma Lewandowski became the new "Babcia" of the family. She lived a long and meritorious life. She was a virtuous, which is what a good Catholic should be. But although that is what we expect from a Catholic, it is still a rare commodity in this world. She was meek. She was empathetic. She was someone who enjoyed talking about your life and hers—the big events of life, like when Jan and I came over and announced our wedding engagement. She loved to talk about things like that. But she also liked to talk about all of life's little problems—the aches, the pains, and (increasingly in recent years) the doctor's visits, and her little birds. The world was a better place for her having been alive in our time. And the world would be a far better place if more people like her lived in it now. _____ The world that Mary Lewandowski was born into was completely foreign to the world that most of us know today, with the possible exception of some, such as Aunt [Cousin] Eleanor or Aunt [Cousin] Margie, who also knew Mary when she was young. Mary was born in April 1918. Think about that. "The Great War" was still raging, and it wouldn't end for another 6 months. Many, perhaps most, of the features of modern life that we take for granted had not yet been invented when Mary was born. Or, if they were, they were not common in the lives of ordinary folk. There were few "horseless carriages." And after her husband essentially scared her out of ever wanting to drive a car, she remained carless for her whole life (as we heard yesterday after the Scripture reading) and her daughters faithfully drove her all around town. When Mary was born, there was no such thing as "television." The kind of Major League Baseball that she took a liking to later in life was almost a new sport at the time. After all, Abner Doubleday, the father of modern game of baseball, passed from this world only 25 years before Mary was born. I looked this up last night—believe it or not, Abner Doubleday's wife was also named Mary. Even household electricity and what we think of as "modern appliances" were rare or nonexistent when she started traveling her long road of life. In fact, you heard yesterday that Mary worked in a factory in Detroit making laundering irons when she came here to live with her sister Margaret. So in some small way she contributed to this "modern life" that we now know of. When Mary was born, no one "traveled" by airplane. And to her end, she never did either. The only "flying" she did was last weekend, when she said that she was on her way to be with God and asked for permission to be with Him. During most of Mary's life, there were no cell phones or computers. She never even tried to use a computer,. And the Lord knows that she really couldn't figure out how to use a cell phone, although we patiently showed her over and over again how to use the one that was given to her. In the 95 years since Mary came into the mortal world, a lot happened. She survived the Great Depression. She married an industrious, and wonderfully funny man, named Max, after whom my youngest son is named. She had 3 daughters (Carol, Joanne and Denise) who were the love of her life after her husband Max. She was very proud of her daughters. She never stopped bragging about them, and they lovingly looked after her in the four decades since God took away her beloved Max too early. A number of us present on this occasion would not have existed but for Mary. We know this as a matter of basic science, of DNA. But that is not how we think of it. We think of it in our hearts. Mary's blood runs inside many of our blood. She was within us when we were born. She will always be with us until the day we see her again in Heaven. We are her siblings, her descendants, her in-laws, her friends. But whatever we are, we are all her legacy. And our memories of her mean that she has not really left the world. Indeed, she cannot leave this world entirely until each of our memories are in turn extinguished. While any of us remains in this mortal world and carries those memories, Mary still has a place in this world. And so Mary remains, even while she is with God. I have my own memories. To me, Babcia was the nicest "little old lady" I will ever meet. She embraced my fiancé, Janice, as her own granddaughter from the moment I first brought her over to her house on Liberal to present her. She would "ooh" and "ah" over rings and jewelry and all the little fineries of life. She loved sending and getting cards for every holiday and birthday and anniversary. She continued to send cards to the end, and during the most recent holidays we still received cards with her pained but loving handwriting. She loved the little thoughts, like the little plug-in Christmas tree we sent her for her condominium. In a word, she was unpretentious. She was harmless. She was funny. She was a sheer joy to talk to. Because she cared. When I was a kid, she would give us cans of empty coffee cans to catch grasshoppers or bumblebees. She'd let us climb the pear tree in our yard to pick our own fruit, and she'd care for us when (as my brother Gary did) we fell out of the tree and, in Gary's case, break a bone. She would dote on us. In fact, she doted on everyone. One of her great joys was cooking for everyone. We heard yesterday about her "smachni kolache". I liked her kolache, but I loved her "polichinki." To this day, we use her handwritten recipe at my house to make those lovely Slovak crepes for breakfast. During holidays, she would keep cooking dinner long after everyone else had started eating the meal that she had prepared. Because she cared. I have a couple humorous memories that I would like to share about Mary. She was a funny person. She enjoyed a good joke. But it was also funny to see her react to some harmless jokes, and sometimes she would get mad as a hornet's nest about some seemingly minor aside or ribbing. 1) My first story takes place at some family holiday at her house. We've heard so much about her birds, but she also loved dogs. And at one time, she had a little dog named Bambi. One day we were all at her house, probably for a holiday dinner. We had brought our dog, Brandy, with us. While we were sitting at the kitchen table, the idea came into my head to say, "Brandy, go get Bambi." I don't know why, but I did. And by sheer coincidence, my dog started chasing her dog. Boy, did she get mad at that! She actually thought that I had instructed our dog to chase her dog and that he had obeyed my command. It was really funny seeing how mad she got over that little comment. 2) My second story concerns Mary's famous "cheese." She made it for all the holidays. Except it wasn't really cheese. It was something made from eggs. It had a soft texture like Mozzarella. One Easter, Jan and I had an event and we were late arriving to the Easter dinner. It was at Aunt Denise's house. When we arrived, everybody was in a somber mood. Somebody had finally told Mary what everybody was thinking: "Mom, nobody likes your cheese." She got really mad at that. When we arrived, everybody explained what had happened. And so I went up her and said, "Grandma, I like your 'cheese.'" 3) My third story concerns the famous Christmas song "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer." Every year the song would come on the radio, and every year she would cry and get mad about it. She took it personally. She thought that they were literally talking about running her over. We had to explain to her that the song was not about actually running over someone's Grandma. But she still got mad every time she heard that song. 4) Lastly, I hope all of you got to see the photograph at the funeral home last night, or perhaps in the church this morning, of Grandma acting drunk at my parent's 50th wedding anniversary. She was holding up a champagne glass and tilting her head to the side. Except there was no alcohol in the glass. But the more photos I took of her, the more she mugged for the camera. The problem was that, once the photos were printed, she saw that picture and she was absolutely mortified that anyone would think she was a souse. At their root, these stories, and so many similar memories that you may carry of Mary, reveal her sweet nature, her old-fashioned sensibilities, and her adorable simplicity. _____ Mary lived 95 years full of joys and sorrows, of great events and little events. For as many years, she created blessed memories for all of us in this room and those who are now separated from us by time or distance. But to me, the last 41 years are the most notable. For the last 41 years, she was waiting to be reunited with her beloved husband Max. As the Good Book says, the meek shall inherit the earth. That is the truth. And I am confident that meek Mary Lewandowski has passed through St. Peter's Gate, and is now holding Max's hand. As we heard from Deacon Mike, she has pried him away from his fishing hole. And they are together again receiving the ultimate reward that God provides for a virtuous life. May she, and Max, and all of Mary's family who preceded her into Heaven, rest in peace.

Mary Lewandowski

April 23, 1918 - September 2, 2013