Sunday, July 7, 2019
Hello, Family - July 7th, 2019
7/4/2019
Hello, Family!
Just returned from a family reunion on Nancy’s side of the family in Machesney Park, Illinois. Most of the attendants (24 of 27) were from Nancy’s brother in law, Don’s side, but Nancy did have two from her side – or three if you include me. Nancy’s sister, Dottie, and Nancy were there from Nancy’s side, so to speak. Dottie & Don were the hosts this year for a family reunion that seems to be an annual thing. Next year’s reunion has already been scheduled, but not the date yet.
As it is, next year’s hosts, Kim and Tung (I think that’s correct) live in Ann Arbor, Michigan – and it just so happens that Mom was born and raised in Ann Arbor. So if Nancy and I go, we may wander the town and see if we can locate something from Mom’s childhood in Ann Arbor. I may be wrong on this, but I think Mom spent the first 17 years or so of her life with her family – the Gregory’s – in Ann Arbor. I am sure my older sisters, Rita and Helen, will correct me if I am wrong on that.
Around the age of 17 or 18, it is my understanding that Mom, Clara Gregory, moved alone or with some of her family to Chicago – where Mom met Dad. They married on April 12th, 1928 in Chicago – and shortly after, Mom and Dad and their first born, Dorothy, moved to Wyoming at the bequest of Dad’s parents and uncles who had moved there first, starting up with a few small farms upon which all of us subsequent Besslers were born and raised. Mom & Dad would have 8 kids in all; and Uncle Felix and Aunt Nanny, who lived down the road from us on another farm, had 9 kids.
As it is, only 1 of those 9 are still alive, but 2 of my sisters and 3 brothers – and me – are still alive from the Besslers that were. Dorothy passed at the age of 73 in 2003 due to repercussions from a spider bite suffered many years before. Dad passed on July 7th, 1966, at the age of 59 – a victim of a run away pickup whose driver had fallen asleep at the wheel. Mom passed from “old age” at the ripe old age of 96 on May 16th, 2004 at a nursing home in Powell; and brother Nick passed from lung cancer in a hospital in Billings, Montana on December 7th, 2016, at the age of 80. Nick had just turned 80 that previous November 2nd.
And that brings me to the funeral service by Father Prado which I am enclosing. Dad’s funeral service was July 11th, 1966 – and a wonderful priest named Father Prado conducted the service from Dad and Mom’s church – St. Barbara’s Catholic Parish in my home town of Powell, Wyoming. I must say we were so lucky to have had Father Prado conduct the service. He had not been the pastor of St. Barbara’s for long (maybe a year or two), but he offered what I consider as fine a “funeral service” as has ever been conducted by one of us humans. I am not sure why we were so lucky to have had a truly heart moved pastor at hand, but we were – and every now and then, I fetch his sermon – as best as I could remember noting it after the service. I was 24 when Dad died. That was 53 years ago.
About that, my older brother, Denny (Denis) asked me if I could try and recall Father Cletus Prado’s service and maybe write something down so we could remember it as a family. I had no idea if I could fulfill Denny’s request, but I went into my bedroom, closed the door, and tried to recall it the best I could. The family told me afterwards that it was amazing I could recall it as good as I did because it seemed almost verbatim as Father Prado had uttered it. Who knows about that, but however it was, I am so pleased to share it once again – for those so interested. OK? Thanks!
And that brings me to another funeral service to be conducted two days from now – at St. Paul’s Newman Catholic Church here in Laramie. I do believe that the one we will be honoring, Frank Sanchez, and Dad were brothers in the spirit – like I think we all are if we only took some time to consider how alike we all are. Frank was as wonderful in his own way as was Dad – or as I believe it, is Dad. Frank ended his life at the age of 54 on May 17th, almost 15 years to the day that Mom passed. He took charge to “end his life” on his own – having suffered from PTSD since he served in the first Iraq War of 1991 – when President George Bush Sr. decided we could not allow Saddam Hussein move into Kuwait and thought it “his” duty to stop such an invasion. So Frank served as a soldier to stop Saddam Hussein – and probably did things he later regretted doing – thus causing in him terrible agony of mind for being a soldier and doing what he was commanded to do.
Frank was a “son-in-law,” being the husband of my new daughter-in-law, Debbie, Nancy’s daughter. I am so glad I could know Frank; and though it may seem rather selfish to be mindful of that when maybe we should be accenting sorrow rather than celebration, I choose to celebrate a person’s life and not moan about what I may be missing. Frank, too, was his own “flower on a hill” that Father Prado commended so heart-fully on July 11th, 1966, when we remembered Dad 4 days after he left us for another adventure someplace else. All I want to say to Frank now, is GO FOR IT, Brother Frank. We will all soon be following. Look for us, sometime soon! OK?
Thanks Again!
Gently,
Francis William Bessler
(Frank, Will, Sonny)
& Nancy Shaw
4500 Meadowlark Lane
Laramie, Wyoming 82070
willieb@wyoming.com website: www.una-bella-vita.com
307-742-7428
P.S. If you are ever around Laramie,
be sure you arrange to visit us.