Be Still My Soul
I wish to say that on behalf of our family and behalf of Iris (and Emil) thank
you so much for coming. I can tell you as sure as we are sitting here that
they would both love to see you and would smile and give you all a hug or
handshake. Our folks were special. We know that and to tell the truth we
have been blessed by them as have many others as well.
You know there is a strange finality to it when the second parent dies.
Many of you know all to well what I am talking about.
It is also a different emotion with “mom” dies. After all……… its mom!
Mother’s, like our mom, create a special kind of nurturing caring love and
there is nothing quite like it.
Three things have come to me recently that I would like to share………the
number 5, proper, and be still!
Iris Ann (Forshee) Sztanyo, 91
Jan 30, 1925 ~ Feb 26, 2016
For some reason the number of 5 has come to the surface as I have thought of mom over this time. Maybe its because of the memorable experience at the age of 5 when I got one of mom’s famous yardstick spankings. Now believe me, I deserved the correction and the dirty little secret was I had to fake cry to convince my mom that her spankings actually hurt. On this day the flimsy yardstick she was using was flawed and broke. But the spanking wasn’t quite over yet, and the only yardstick she had available was the kind that was the square stick type. It didn’t break and that day I didn’t fake it.
Mom was born in 1925 and raised in a family of 5, then she herself had a family of 5. In her younger and better days’ she stood almost 5’5”. And 5 months after her life long love’s funeral, she crossed over.
Proper: When I think of our mom I think of proper. Goodness, we lived with her, and it seemed like she was always proper. She got that from her mom, Alpha. Oh, she painted, gardened, cooked and the like but when that was over she quickly got herself “proper” again. Yeah, she was my mom, but oh what a Proper Lady of dignity she was and what an example for us and others.
Be still: Weird, strange, sad, ugly and sometimes beautiful things happen in the last moments of a person’s life. During the last 2 days mom would often repeat “please be still.” Marcia and I didn’t recall her saying that much before and it sort of puzzled us. During these moments we both asked mom if she wanted US to be still. Maybe we were making too much noise, but she said no. Maybe the nurses were too disruptive and she was speaking to them. But she wasn’t. As we look at the time we both think she was speaking to her own soul. She was nervous, anxious, and had trepidation, as many of us would facing our own final moments. But all of her faith, all of her beliefs, all of her training taught her that that peace comes from God when we stand still in His presence so she kept speaking to herself those words. She loved that song precious Lord take my hand, and when He did she indeed was flooded with peace, calm and stillness. In scripture every time mankind was confronting divinity there was fear. And the first words spoken to calm the soul was “fear not.” I am convinced near the very end that God pulled the curtain back and revealed a little of glory and she no longer had to chide herself to be still…or at peace, because it surrounded her. In God, perfect peace resides. She found it at last.
Iris Ann Sztanyo thank you for being our mom, for cooking those pies, for helping us dress, for playing hymns on the piano, for posing us for those silly Christmas pictures, for never fighting with dad (in front of us), for being a lady of talent and dignity, for living out your faith, and most of all for faithfully loving your man and teaching us what marriage should look like. God Bless you Iris as now have run your race and have now realized your prize…… shekinah glory forever more!
By son Mark Sztanyo
