My deepest condolences over your loss. May you find some comfort and strength from God's love and wonderful promises found in Job 14:14,15; Psalms 55:22; Acts 24:15; Revelation 21:4. Kindly visit jw.org for more Bible based information and encouragement.

A Eulogy for Angela M. LaPointe Thank you all for being here to honor Angela, my mother. One thing Mom really liked to do was work Crossword Puzzles. While the rest of our family was watching shows like I Love Lucy, The Jack Benny Program, The Red Skelton Hour, Milton Berle, and Lawrence Welk on a grainy black and white TV that she had won in a raffle, more often than not Mom would be sitting in a chair towards the back of the room with a well-used Agrico Fertilizer pencil clenched between her teeth while looking up words in a massive dictionary to help filling in the latest Monroe Evening News crossword puzzle. That dictionary was something else. It was about 6 inches think and a foot square, and it was purchased in segments using Top Value trading stamps. After she found what she was looking for, she closed it and then used it as a lap table to write on. The binding consisted of 3/16-inch carriage bolts enabling new segments to be inserted upon receipt. After 50 plus years of hard use and countless crossword puzzles, that dictionary looked quite the worse for wear. It was the most enduring item Mom ever got via those Top Value stamps. Mom grew up on her family’s farm and contributed from a young age. In addition to helping her mother with household duties, she worked alongside her father, brother, uncle, and cousin in the fields, pulling weeds, picking tomatoes, as well as driving tractors and trucks. A 5-speed manual truck transmission was no challenge for her, a skill she used to good advantage later on. Her least favorite job was walking the tomato fields manually picking aphids from the undersides of the leaves and drowning the pests in a mason jar half filled with kerosene. Solving crossword puzzles was quite typical of Mom. She was really, really smart, though she would never admit it. Although her brother was 3 years her senior, she taught him the intricacies of multiplication and long division when she was only 9. She graduated from High School at the age of 16, having skipped two grades. She then completed comptometer school and started working at Lamson’s Department Store in downtown Toledo. Within a year or so she became manager of the 10-person accounting department, with Lamson’s paying her the princely sum of $15 a week for the privilege. From that meager salary, she saved and purchased a cedar chest, bedroom suit, linens, and other items she used extensively long thereafter. In the early 1940’s, an offer from Willys Overland for $40 a week enticed her to work in their business office, a considerable salary in post-depression America. But her Willys Overland career ended for the next phase of her life. She and my father were married in November of 1944, a union that lasted 70 years and 10 days. Theirs was a true partnership. Mom and Dad debated and agreed upon all major decisions. Together they ran the family farm, raised a family, took care of their parents as well as other family members, and actively participated in Church and community affairs. I remember my parents working together on the dining room table where Mom recorded every financial transaction in large green ledgers as Dad indicated what each of a myriad of paper slips strewn about on the table were about and for. Mom had the uncanny ability of accurately adding a column of numbers in her head as her finger quickly swept down the page. She was able to do that well into old age. Dad raised potatoes as well as other crops. A potato warehouse on the farm was filled in the fall. Through most of the winter, Dad would make two truckloads a day to potato chip companies in Detroit. Back in the warehouse, Mom would work with and direct 3 or 4 mostly indigent, grizzly, and sometimes sober men to shovel, grade, bag, weigh, sew, and stack 100lb burlap bags for Dad’s next load. The most tedious job involved standing next to the grader, and, while they flew by on a conveyor, hurriedly grabbing and throwing sub-standard potatoes into a basket on the floor. The work was mind numbing and the dust was choking, yet Mom did it for nearly two decades and never complained. During spring through fall, Mom supported Dad by driving tractors in the field, trucking water for the potato sprayer, delivering seeds and fertilizer to the planter, fetching needed parts to repair equipment, and doing whatever else was necessary to help keep the farm operating. Change is evitable in farming, and in 1963 Dad stopped growing potatoes, switching to other crops. Mom began working again in Toledo, first for a small baking company on the East side, and a couple of years later moving on to Sears at Westgate. Both jobs were in their respective financial departments. She handled these jobs while also addressing the usual cooking, cleaning, washing, ironing, and parenting tasks that were unending in our household, as well as having to continue to support Dad on the farm. She worked unselfishly and tirelessly. Mom’s drive for all of this hard work, which she shared with Dad, was to provide for my two sisters, my brother, and I. She was determined that we be provided with a good education. She sacrificed herself for us to achieve that. Depending on carpool schedules, Mom would sometimes drive across Toledo after work to pick me up from High School. I remember vividly one particular trip home. She asked me how my day went, and I responded pretty well, I had aced a trigonometry test. She then asked me, “When you go to college, what will you study?”. Many years after that, I thought about the subtlety and power of that question. She didn’t say, “Do you want to go to college?”, or “Do you think you’ll go to college?”, keeping in mind that, in the 1960’s, college wasn’t an assured option for Erie farm boys. Instead, her question was: “When you go to college, what will you study?”. The way she said it unambiguously indicated her expectations, yet it didn’t come across as any kind of ultimatum. What outstanding parenting! I remember pondering her question for a bit, and then responding that I wanted to study engineering. She kept to herself whatever misgivings she may have had at my proposed career choice, very unlike Dilbert’s mother. Ultimately, with Mom’s never faltering support and encouragement, my sisters, brother, and I all graduated from college, and Mom never stopped expressing her pride in us for doing so. She always considered that one of her major life’s accomplishments. The trials and travails Mom and Dad faced were considerable. Mom’s brother, both parents, and sister all passed away in less than 5 years in the early 1960’s. My Dad’s elderly mother and Mom’s uncle both lived with us for awhile during that time. The passing of two grandsons, Mathew and Cole, was especially difficult for her. The never ending demands of her household, family, the farm, and caring for Dad in later years took their toll physically and spiritually. What sustained Mom through all of her challenges was her resolute Catholic Faith. She knew there was an ultimate purpose to life, and she never lost focus on achieving that goal. She lived her faith. Growing up, after dinner was over and the dishes washed and put away, the entire family would kneel in the living room and pray the rosary. Each family member would take a turn at leading, except Dad, because he sometimes fell asleep. Mom had committed several litanies and many other prayers to memory and these were recited after completing the rosary. This occurred each and every night unwaveringly. Mom was a very active member of St. Joseph’s Church. Through the years, she either participated in or lead the St. Joseph’s School Mother’s Guild, The Altar Society, the Doll Booth and Raffle Ticket Sales for the Annual Festival, the Funeral Dinner Committee, and wherever or for whoever else needed help. In 1977 she was voted Mother of the Year by the Altar Society, the plaque for which she proudly displayed for decades afterwards. The Church was her anchor, and she freely volunteered her time and talents accordingly. Mom was cognitively sharp and socially active up to the very end. Her days were filled with various social activities and she had a steady stream of daily visitors, records of which she maintained on her calendar. We needed to call ahead to schedule a visit! During her later years, Mom often expressed her anticipation of being with her departed family members again in Heaven. Her eyes would twinkle at the prospect. She received Communion and entertained friends on the very morning of the day she passed. A little later, as Mom was taking her last few breaths, after a 99 year life filled with love, family, friends, accomplishments, and steadfastly practicing her Catholic Faith, I had the privilege, while kneeling next to her, of saying: “Mom, say Hi to the family.”

Our prayers and sympathies go out to Mim’s family at this time. She was a wonderful gracious lady! She will be missed by all that knew her. Rest In Peace Mim.

A classy, beautiful woman inside and out. She has touched so many during her life. The community will miss her and the thousands of cards she so thoughtfully mailed out to lift a grieving soul or to bring them cheer. Rest In Peace dear Angela.

My deepest sympathy to the family. Losing a loved one is one of the most painful thing in this world. But rest assured that Jehovah our God sees our sorrows and deeply cares about us. (1Peter 5:7) May you find comfort in God's word recorded in John 5:28,29 which promises a resurrection hope for all our dear loved ones.

Leon, Larry, Sandra, and Linda: I (we) are so very sorry Please Let us know if there is anything we can do for you She was the best & we'll miss her so much She was the sweetest Lady I ever knew

So sorry to hear this. Aunt Angela visited us once in California and we had a wonderful time. She seemed blessed with patience, love and kindness.