In Memory

On Saturday, June 8, my sweet grandmother, Dorothy Helsen, passed away. She was 85 (and 1/2) and lived a long, full life. I loved her dearly and miss her already and can't say anything better than what my dad said at her funeral. Here is his eulogy and his tribute to his mother - wife of Ike, mother of 10, grandmother of 25, great-grandmother of 14 and a woman known for her faith and kindness in her town and beyond:

Dorothy Helsen, May 17, 2013

On behalf of my brothers and sisters, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, aunts and uncles, I want to thank you for being here today to celebrate the life of Dorothy Mae Helsen (Mom).  We are blessed to be part of the St. Catherine’s parish and Ravenna communities, as many people have been here to help our family through these final weeks of Mom’s life.  It is impossible to thank everyone, but the people who provided care for her are truly special people and she loved every one of you.

Mom was a person who lived, loved, and left a legacy.  She was a person who had tremendous patience, and organizational and time management skills.  She was able to get ten children ready for church with only one bathroom in the house.  Each summer we would spend a week in the Upper Peninsula on vacation, but it was not much of a vacation for Mom. She would be cooking and cleaning the cabin while the rest of us fished, swam and had fun, but she did it without complaining because it was the only time Dad took time away from the farm and she knew we all loved going there.  We had to go with other families in order to have enough seats in the car for everyone.  So thanks to Uncle Gene’s family, the Shillings, and the Gilberts, we were able to get twelve people to the U.P.  each summer.

Mom celebrated life in so many ways, but especially through her cooking and family celebrations.  Mom made a jelly roll on Lincoln’s Birthday (Lincoln log), cherry pie on Washington’s Birthday, owl cookies
for Halloween,  church window cookies for the annual Helsen cookie exchange day, and homemade apple pie on Sundays was almost a given.  Feeding a large farm family was a very large job and Mom was able to prepare a meal at times from what seemed to be nothing, much like Jesus did in the parable of the Loaves and the Fishes.   We even created some of our own holidays, like Pumpkin Day.  Dad would plant pumpkins each year and when it was time to harvest, the entire family would get together and take a hayride to the pumpkin patch to gather the pumpkins.  All the pumpkins would be loaded on wagons and brought back to the house and each child would claim as many pumpkins as they wanted, and then we would have a family meal together.   After the meal, a game of touch football or whiffle ball was more than likely to take place.

Mom lived her faith, loved her church and community, and was always ready to help when it was needed.    She was always there to provide food for funeral luncheons and was in charge of the annual turkey dinner at St. Catherine’s for many years.  Many people of this parish benefited from Mom’s prayers in their time of need.  Her devotion to her faith was an inspiration to everyone, and she didn't miss a day without saying at least one rosary, and with the help of Aunt Helen, Mom got in one last rosary right before she died.

Mom’s love for her family was large and she had a way of making each one of us feel special as individuals. For example, she let each of us choose what we wanted for breakfast (even chicken noodle soup), or what we wanted for our birthday dinner and the kind of birthday cake we wanted.   Mom loved life and instilled in all of us that it is the simple things in life that matter.  Mom had great intuition and could tell if we were sad, worried, anxious, or needed a hug, and she knew exactly what to say and when to say it. She always took care of us even as we provided care for her.

So today, we celebrate the life of a beautiful lady who is now resting in the arms of the angels.  She taught us much about love, faith and the value of family.  May we always remember her lessons and treat others with kindness and caring in the same way.  We miss her already and we’ll always love her “a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck.”

Ike and Dorothy Helsen, October 1948