He is survived by his wife Connie, now of Tucson his daughters, Anne (Paul) McKenna and Lori (Lawrence) Chicchelly, all of Des Moines daughter, Lynette Thornton of Carlisle and sons, Joe (Lori) Remetch and Seth (Chris) Remetch, of Des Moines and Urbandale. Connie told him he was setting the bar pretty high with this how to die thing.Īlfred was predeceased by both his parents, all his siblings and his wife, Bev. He faced his pain and impending death clear eyed and at peace. He was solidly courageous in meeting this different cancer. His frequent prayer and assertion was, “Nothing happens without Your okay, Lord.” Better yet, he didn’t just say it… he lived it. In the 5 months before his death, he lived with unrelenting and brutal pain. He had a gift for not just calling people out, but calling them up…up to better ways of being. We all need to play nice in the sand pile.” Others there now often quote that. When discussions would grow overly heated and rancorous, he’d rap the table with his knuckles and announce, “Alright, Children. He is widely known there for his wisdom, kindness and sense of humor. In their retirement community in Tucson, he participated in several discussion groups. Our family is grateful Connie did the same for him later. With that same character and commitment, he stood by Bev without fail during her long years of dialysis and eventual death in 1998. In the grocery and food wholesaling business, he worked long and hard without complaint, living his values every day. He and his wife Connie made a pilgrimage there several years ago where he served Mass in the Holy Sepulcher and in several other churches there, nearly daily. He always said he would go to the Holy Land only if he could serve Mass in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, fully convinced that would never happen. Characteristically, he drew no attention to himself there. He often said staying close to the altar his whole life had saved him. It was serving at the altar of our Lord that most anchored and fulfilled him. His recipients had no idea they’d been helped by him. He especially loved that it was anonymous. Until cancer stopped him, he donated 38 gallons of blood. When they moved to Des Moines in 1971, his wife Bev told God that if He gave them a large house, they’d fill it helping others. He served his country and his Marines as a Navy Corpsman. Since he wrote actual letters by hand and enjoyed having note cards made from his paintings.Īl relentlessly gave back to his community and he’d hate public attention being drawn to that. He taught himself to paint, first a huge outdoors scene and later watercolors. Rita in the Desert and to the Salvation Army Toy Drive. In his 4 years in Tucson, he donated some 250 stools to St. He learned woodworking, making probably thousands of stepstools and bird houses as well as a rocking horse and hymnal holders for his large church in Des Moines. He has to be the only person in history whose cast was as clean the day they cut it off as the day they put it on him. He famously broke his wrist but walked around for a week before getting an x-ray and a cast. He pitched softball till he was 53, playing with guys years younger. He taught and coached his kids in softball. He particularly admired mules with which his grandad farmed when Alfred was young. In his words, he was “persnickety“about his yard where he grew vegetables, raspberries and roses, roses, and more roses.Īlfred was seldom far from a book he loved learning. He bypassed chemicals in favor of digging dandelions and other weeds out by hand. They made it into meat pies for family meals…and there is only ONE dog, the German Shorthair. He taught his boys to hunt duck, pheasant and quail along with rabbit. He was the best night-crawler hunter ever, grabbing two at a time, one in each hand with a flashlight in his mouth. Fishing was one of his favorite ways to relax. Apart from serving at the altar, that was his place of best peace and connection with God. He grew up with his older brother Edward, his younger sister Josephine and the youngest, Richard.Īl loved being out in nature. Alfred Henry Remetch was born on Decemto Joseph Francis and Ruth Genevieve Knipp Remetch in Waterloo, Iowa.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |