Christmas 2009
Wow, what a year it has been in the west-coast Ebacher household! Let’s see if we can sum it up in a positive and exciting way…. Follow the links to pictures and information about our lives.
Dom and Kelsie are doing great! They continue to make improvements and modifications around their home outside of Belfair, WA, including the completion of a storage shed, the creation of an area for raising chickens (and eggs), improving their garden area and soon to get a wood stove installed to keep their home toasty warm! Kelsie works for the City of Bremerton doing many things including web design, and Dom is working for a Bremerton company that makes portable planetariums, Digitalis Education Solutions. They only live about 3 hours away, so we try to see each other regularly. That part is nice!
Mara and Patrick had a momentous year! In May, she graduated from medical school, and is now a full fledged doctor! We attended her graduation in Kirksville, Mo and were just so very proud of this major life accomplishment. She is now at the Naval Medical Center at Portsmouth, Virginia. She has a three year commitment for her residency at which time she will be board certified as a pediatrician. Mara and Patrick have the BEST Christmas present….their son, Elliot Andrew, was born on Dec. 3rd at 5:38 AM. He weighed 7lbs 7 ozs, and was 20 inches long! We flew out to Virginia on the 5th and stayed until the 19th, and just had a wonderful time meeting our first grandson and helping the new parents get comfortable in their new roles. We got to see the hospital where Mara works, the naval base in general, Virginia beach and some of the surrounding area. Also, since we were “in the area” we rented a car and drove up to Marlboro and Newburyport, MA and visited with Jim’s Aunts and Cousin Jeanine. Yes, it was a 12 hour drive each way, but for us, THAT was “in the area”—at least we were on the same coast! And the lobster and fried clams were definitely worth it too. (Ha!)
Maddie has had a good year, though she is still living at home with us in Camas and would like to change that aspect of her life! What she needs to make that happen is a job with more stability and income, and she is working on making that happen. She enjoys her job as a photographer with LifeTouch and Sears, but taking school pictures is seasonal, and she needs steady income to make rent each month! On the other hand, she has been a great help around the house, watching the dogs when we take vacations, helping out when I was sick, etc... and just having her around for company and companionship has been great! We enjoy having her home, so there is no pressure from us to leave. After all, we have a 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom house—we’re not exactly pressed for space!
Our youngest, Miesha Jo, graduated from Western Washington University this past June with a degree in speech and communication disorders (speech pathology), but before going on to a 2-3 year graduate program to complete the speech pathology degree, she decided she wanted to join the “Teach for America” program. She was accepted into this program and was assigned to an inner city school in Chicago, Illinois, The Village Leadership Academy. She is having a great time. We are wickedly awaiting her impressions of winter in Chicago—her first ever experience of Midwest winter—hee,hee,hee. She is turning into a wonderful teacher in an exciting experimental curriculum which is quite Montessori in its orientation. She also organized a Facebook Book Drive for penpals in her classroom, which has caught on to other classrooms at her school. She misses her honey, Chris, who is finishing up his degree at Western, but they are enduring the long term relationship. She will be home for Christmas and we are looking forward to spending some time with her and Chris.
New Grammy Pat’s year has been WAY too exciting, starting with a diagnosis of breast cancer in her left breast in Jan. A quick, uneventful mastectomy, three sessions of chemotherapy (four was recommended, but I had an ulcer that “blew” and ended up in intensive care with half my blood volume replaced—so no more chemo!)and I am now “good to go”! The cancer was found way early during my annual mammogram, so yay for that! I have already had two follow-up appointments with my oncologist (one every three months), and all looks good! Thanks to all for your prayers and support. I have been back to work full time (12 hour shifts) since May. Sometime this next year I will go and have the reconstructive surgery done and be “balanced” again, but I’m in no rush… It is another 10 weeks off work…that gets tough on the old checkbook! Anyway, I am just so excited to be a grandma, and so grateful to be alive and around to enjoy it all! And, my hair came back curly.
New Granpa Jim’s life has also had its challenges. He continues to work for Kaiser Permanente, as a manager in Continuing Care Services (Home Health, Hospice, Home Infusion and Geriatrics and Long Term Care). It’s rewarding work and God willing, he will be able to retire from KP in 10 years or so. This year marked some good hikes, namely the Hoh River Trail with Maddie, Dom and Kelsie, and Mt. Adams and Spirit Lake with Pat. We had a great opportunity to “rent” (free) a neighborhood garden, and it turned out great, especially the pumpkins, beans, beets, peas, squash, corn and potatoes. All organic, of course. We bought and split 3cords of firewood, and put some of it on the back porch, now covered with a new deck roof. His 54th birthday was marked with a diagnosis of Type II Diabetes, and this has changed his diet and lifestyle somewhat, but we are coping with this and have been successful with a dietary/exercise approach so far. Pat got Jim to remodel the master bedroom and closet this year, and it turned out very well with a new laminate floor, green and brown walls and our new California Closet.
Also this year we had guests from AFS (welcome family home), and had two college friends of Chris’ over for Thanksgiving. We have joined a new church, literally a brand new parish near us, Holy Redeemer. Other events were travels to Missouri for Mara’s graduation, travel to Bellingham for Miesha’s graduation and then travel to Chicago to move her there. Also, in July we hopped in the VW and did a whirlwind round trip to Alexandria, MN for a Minnesota Ebacher family reunion at Tom’s place, goodbye party for Jerry and Dorothy, and 87th birthday party for Jim’s mother Gloria. We had a visit from Jim’s sister Corinne and #3 daughter Elizabeth in November, and visits from Pat’s bother Brian and family in the Spring and Summer.
Of course, the inauguration of our new president was a remarkable highlight of 2009.
We thank you all for your friendship and prayers. We hope 2010 is full of blessings and meaning, gives you peace and renewal, and finds you with opportunities to bring people together in community.
Jim and Pat Ebacher
pjebacher@comcast.net
3010 NW Kent St.
Camas, WA 98607
Mara Ebacher
dr.mara@gmail.com
1201 Basswood Ct.
Chesapeake, VA 23320
Maddie Ebacher
madeleine.ebacher@gmail.com
3010 NW Kent St.
Camas, WA 98607
Miesha Ebacher
mieshajo@gmail.com
808 E. 54th St. Apt. 3
Chicago, IL 60615
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Just a blog to share our picture, activities and interests, mostly for our kids as they build their own lives, so we can stay connected.
Fr. Roger's Eulogy
Roger Joseph Ebacher, OCSO
May 19, 1919 – April 15, 2008
Eulogy
My name is Jim Ebacher, and I am Fr. Jerome’s nephew. My father was Fr. Jerome’s kid brother. They called him Bill, and we call Fr. Jerome, “Roger”, and his Medicare card calls him Joseph. It’s all kind of confusing. But, had my father lived into his old age, I’m sure he would have been here today at this lectern, also finding a way to make you laugh a little bit. So, I guess I’ll speak to you in his place.
Roger was born on May 19th, 1919, to French Canadian immigrants on May 19th, 1919, and grew up in Amesbury, Massachusetts. We trace our ancestry to one lone mercenary, a Frenchman, recruited by the Braunschweigers to fight the American colonial rebels in the war of Independence. The Braunschweigers lost that fight, but like many of those who were defeated, Jean-Baptiste Ebacher and his descendents the Ebacher and Baker families, settled in and around Quebec, Canada. At the turn of the last century many French Canadians we enticed to immigrate to Amesbury, Massachusetts to work on the new carriage factories, making the early horseless carriages. They needed skilled carpenters. Roger grew up as a boy in the Amesbury neighborhood called the “brickyard”, and as you might guess, this area was not known for its stunning views or fine homes. He was one of a family of four brothers and five sisters. Their mother died when Roger was in the 6th grade, naturally a traumatic experience which scarred Roger throughout his life and lead to his frail disposition. He has three surviving siblings; Beatrice, Margaret and Therese, all religious sisters in the order of St. Critienne in Marlboro, Massachusetts. Please keep them in your prayers.
Roger began his religious life at the minor seminary of Our Lady of LaSalette, in Enfield, New Hampshire. There, he was schooled in High School subject matter and in the languages of Greek, Latin, French and English. After LaSalette he explored his vocation with the LaSalette fathers, and I believe was quite close to ordination with them, when he felt called to the Trappist community at St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Mass, which he then joined. While at this Abbey, he lost all his collected poems as the result of a fire, something he quietly grieved his entire life. He was part of the original foundation to Pecos, New Mexico, and he studied at the Vatican for a short time. He was with the community when they moved to this location in 1955. My apologies if I have any of this wrong.
In his final days, Roger told me quite often that he felt on the whole quite blessed in this life. He also expressed regret that he did not have a stronger prayer life and that he wasn’t a very good monk. The rule of St. Benedict has the motto Prayer and Work. Roger’s work was teaching, which he did as novice master for many years, painting, and his duties as Mass Secretary, and finally keeping everything tidy in the Sacristy. He believed all priests should be grounded in the classical philosophical thoughts of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, as well as the 20th century writings particularly of Whitehead. During the 1970’s Roger embarked on a systematic study of modern science, reading Biology, Physics, Anatomy, Psychology, and finishing with what he came to believe was the basis of all understand of matter, Quantum Physics. Naturally, there were few he could knowledgeably discuss these pursuits with. At the same time he began a study of painting with a teacher in McMinnville, a pursuit he dedicated a number of years to. Roger didn’t think he would live to see the new church, but he did, and he liked it very much, although he has his doubts when it was being planned. He expressed his appreciation for the love and support of Abbot Peter often to me, and enjoyed a warm fraternal relationship with Dom Bernard.
Roger was nervous and frail for much of his life. He was very conscious of his weak voice. He had a touchy constitution and generally kept only a few close friends in the Abbey. He had a number of secular contacts; men and women who came to him for confession and who enjoyed discussions of philosophy. These visits were uplifting to his spirits. I don’t know anything about most of these relationships, but I’m sure their stories will be told and we will learn new things about Fr. Jerome.
He was a philosopher. His writings represent a body of concise thought about the nature of existence. And, in his later years he felt that it was quite complete, that he has said all he wanted to say, even if it sadly may never be read and understood by another human being. In his final years, he often spoke of how he felt a peace with the completeness of his writings. The only spiritual connection he ever spoke of to me was with ST. THERESE OF LISIEUX, a doctor of the church, known as the little flower. He had an old black and white photograph of her in his room, and he often spoke of feeling her personal presence with him.
Roger was a beloved uncle to me, and like a grandfather to my children. Maybe this is an odd thing for a monk. I don’t know. It seems quite natural to us. My relationship began the year before my father died, when I spend January term here, having come by Greyhound bus from Minnesota. Some of you here today remember this. Roger returned my visit by officiating at our wedding in Minnesota just 4 years later. He gave First Communion to our four children, and no matter how noisy and rambunctious they were, always received them with love and joy. Like us, he rejoiced in their achievements and growth. Over the past few years he often spoke of his longing to be with God in eternal life. He was impatient with his existence and not at all sure why he was still hanging around. Roger was my father surrogate, and although I miss my father very deeply, I have always felt he was actually still with me, not at all gone. And now, I grieve the loss to me of both of these gentle men who have given me so much.
His last coherent words to me were that when it gets down to it, it’s really all about the Father Almighty. Just the Father, at the center of it all. And I will leave you with that mystery. It might be an unwritten coda to the symphony of this one monk’s life of seeking an understanding of existence. Roger felt he had come to some measure of Truth in his thoughts and writings, and also felt the presence of the devil who was trying to shut him up. I believe Roger has finally won his struggle; his struggle with life and Truth.
When we come into the world we proclaim our arrival with loud cries and complaints. When we go, life just sneaks out of us. Somewhere between, if we are lucky and we put for the effort to find it, one can find a measure of revelation. This is what I’ve learned from my dear uncle.
I want to thank you all for coming today and letting me speak briefly with you. I want to express to all of you the gratitude for the prayers that made Jerome’s passing a smooth journey, and supported us throughout the vigil and his illness these past many months.
I want to close with a poem Roger wrote a long time ago. It’s called “Imaculata”.
IMMACULATA
She rests in the clean dawn, my white-
winged Dove, in the clefted reef, cooing,
wooing the Rising-Sun.
Mine is the Morning-Glory, bright
in twilit brittleness,
lipping,
lapping the soonest Ray.
She is a Forest-Virgin, awed
to tremor and hush, yet
dancing,
clapping her atom-hands.
Mine, this clearest fountain, with
trembling sparks in glee,
leaping,
telling of full-day’s Flame.
James Joseph Ebacher
Read at Roger's Funeral Reception
4-19-08
May 19, 1919 – April 15, 2008
Eulogy
My name is Jim Ebacher, and I am Fr. Jerome’s nephew. My father was Fr. Jerome’s kid brother. They called him Bill, and we call Fr. Jerome, “Roger”, and his Medicare card calls him Joseph. It’s all kind of confusing. But, had my father lived into his old age, I’m sure he would have been here today at this lectern, also finding a way to make you laugh a little bit. So, I guess I’ll speak to you in his place.
Roger was born on May 19th, 1919, to French Canadian immigrants on May 19th, 1919, and grew up in Amesbury, Massachusetts. We trace our ancestry to one lone mercenary, a Frenchman, recruited by the Braunschweigers to fight the American colonial rebels in the war of Independence. The Braunschweigers lost that fight, but like many of those who were defeated, Jean-Baptiste Ebacher and his descendents the Ebacher and Baker families, settled in and around Quebec, Canada. At the turn of the last century many French Canadians we enticed to immigrate to Amesbury, Massachusetts to work on the new carriage factories, making the early horseless carriages. They needed skilled carpenters. Roger grew up as a boy in the Amesbury neighborhood called the “brickyard”, and as you might guess, this area was not known for its stunning views or fine homes. He was one of a family of four brothers and five sisters. Their mother died when Roger was in the 6th grade, naturally a traumatic experience which scarred Roger throughout his life and lead to his frail disposition. He has three surviving siblings; Beatrice, Margaret and Therese, all religious sisters in the order of St. Critienne in Marlboro, Massachusetts. Please keep them in your prayers.
Roger began his religious life at the minor seminary of Our Lady of LaSalette, in Enfield, New Hampshire. There, he was schooled in High School subject matter and in the languages of Greek, Latin, French and English. After LaSalette he explored his vocation with the LaSalette fathers, and I believe was quite close to ordination with them, when he felt called to the Trappist community at St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Mass, which he then joined. While at this Abbey, he lost all his collected poems as the result of a fire, something he quietly grieved his entire life. He was part of the original foundation to Pecos, New Mexico, and he studied at the Vatican for a short time. He was with the community when they moved to this location in 1955. My apologies if I have any of this wrong.
In his final days, Roger told me quite often that he felt on the whole quite blessed in this life. He also expressed regret that he did not have a stronger prayer life and that he wasn’t a very good monk. The rule of St. Benedict has the motto Prayer and Work. Roger’s work was teaching, which he did as novice master for many years, painting, and his duties as Mass Secretary, and finally keeping everything tidy in the Sacristy. He believed all priests should be grounded in the classical philosophical thoughts of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, as well as the 20th century writings particularly of Whitehead. During the 1970’s Roger embarked on a systematic study of modern science, reading Biology, Physics, Anatomy, Psychology, and finishing with what he came to believe was the basis of all understand of matter, Quantum Physics. Naturally, there were few he could knowledgeably discuss these pursuits with. At the same time he began a study of painting with a teacher in McMinnville, a pursuit he dedicated a number of years to. Roger didn’t think he would live to see the new church, but he did, and he liked it very much, although he has his doubts when it was being planned. He expressed his appreciation for the love and support of Abbot Peter often to me, and enjoyed a warm fraternal relationship with Dom Bernard.
Roger was nervous and frail for much of his life. He was very conscious of his weak voice. He had a touchy constitution and generally kept only a few close friends in the Abbey. He had a number of secular contacts; men and women who came to him for confession and who enjoyed discussions of philosophy. These visits were uplifting to his spirits. I don’t know anything about most of these relationships, but I’m sure their stories will be told and we will learn new things about Fr. Jerome.
He was a philosopher. His writings represent a body of concise thought about the nature of existence. And, in his later years he felt that it was quite complete, that he has said all he wanted to say, even if it sadly may never be read and understood by another human being. In his final years, he often spoke of how he felt a peace with the completeness of his writings. The only spiritual connection he ever spoke of to me was with ST. THERESE OF LISIEUX, a doctor of the church, known as the little flower. He had an old black and white photograph of her in his room, and he often spoke of feeling her personal presence with him.
Roger was a beloved uncle to me, and like a grandfather to my children. Maybe this is an odd thing for a monk. I don’t know. It seems quite natural to us. My relationship began the year before my father died, when I spend January term here, having come by Greyhound bus from Minnesota. Some of you here today remember this. Roger returned my visit by officiating at our wedding in Minnesota just 4 years later. He gave First Communion to our four children, and no matter how noisy and rambunctious they were, always received them with love and joy. Like us, he rejoiced in their achievements and growth. Over the past few years he often spoke of his longing to be with God in eternal life. He was impatient with his existence and not at all sure why he was still hanging around. Roger was my father surrogate, and although I miss my father very deeply, I have always felt he was actually still with me, not at all gone. And now, I grieve the loss to me of both of these gentle men who have given me so much.
His last coherent words to me were that when it gets down to it, it’s really all about the Father Almighty. Just the Father, at the center of it all. And I will leave you with that mystery. It might be an unwritten coda to the symphony of this one monk’s life of seeking an understanding of existence. Roger felt he had come to some measure of Truth in his thoughts and writings, and also felt the presence of the devil who was trying to shut him up. I believe Roger has finally won his struggle; his struggle with life and Truth.
When we come into the world we proclaim our arrival with loud cries and complaints. When we go, life just sneaks out of us. Somewhere between, if we are lucky and we put for the effort to find it, one can find a measure of revelation. This is what I’ve learned from my dear uncle.
I want to thank you all for coming today and letting me speak briefly with you. I want to express to all of you the gratitude for the prayers that made Jerome’s passing a smooth journey, and supported us throughout the vigil and his illness these past many months.
I want to close with a poem Roger wrote a long time ago. It’s called “Imaculata”.
IMMACULATA
She rests in the clean dawn, my white-
winged Dove, in the clefted reef, cooing,
wooing the Rising-Sun.
Mine is the Morning-Glory, bright
in twilit brittleness,
lipping,
lapping the soonest Ray.
She is a Forest-Virgin, awed
to tremor and hush, yet
dancing,
clapping her atom-hands.
Mine, this clearest fountain, with
trembling sparks in glee,
leaping,
telling of full-day’s Flame.
James Joseph Ebacher
Read at Roger's Funeral Reception
4-19-08
1 comment:
Dad,
Can you do me a favor and take my name and address off of this post? I'm trying to keep a low profile!
Thanks
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