Eulogy

Edward Stahlecker

1921-2007

I have tried writing this many times in my head, not being able to get past the first line. I have pondered through the memories and events of past, through the feelings and emotions which have welled up inside me. They say death is a journey, the final journey or the beginning of new journeys, writing this has been a journey, not for me but for us into the life of a great man who reached out to so many people.

Edward, Grandpa to me, was a man a very few words as most of you know, he was a man who tired the cliché of speaking louder through actions than words. It was because of this that when he did speak everyone listened. He was a very devout man, he firmly believed in the hierarchy of God, Country, Family, community, and Golf. He spent his life in the service of others, working double shifts at DuPont for almost 40years to support a wife and seven kids. Once retired he served his community and church through many community programs and as a deacon.

It wasn’t until I moved here almost two years ago and spent six months living with my grandparents that I truly got to know him. I don’t want to say that I ever took him for granted but I firmly believe that the lessons he taught us are just now being realized by us all.

He was the person in the family that no matter what you could turn to for assistance and he had his own way of helping you. If you needed money, he would get you a job, if you needed to go somewhere he would drive you there, more or less if you needed to eat he would teach you to fish.

All of us here will be forever lucky to be a third of the man that grandpa was, he stormed the beaches in Normandy, was put behind enemy lines on the German front, collected several purple hearts and was awarded two silver stars and the navy cross, the second highest medal that can be awarded all before he was 21. After leaving the navy he served in the coast guard patrolling Americas coast for German subs, it was here he got the gold life saving medal, twice.

He was always one to jump into action, I remember at a family bar-b-que one summer I was running around the pool with my cousin and fell in the deep end, no one else was by the pool, we were both five and couldn’t swim. At the scream of my cousin my grandfather made it across the yard and into the pool before I hit the bottom. We never spoke of that incident until years later. I never had what you would call a close relationship to my grandfather, it wasn’t until I was in boot camp that he wrote me a letter and recalled on the pool thing years later and said that he was glad that he had been the one to jump in cause then no one would see the tears on his face from almost losing me.

Its not until now that we realize how much someone can affect your life, how much of an influence they have over you and your choices, before I deployed to war he took me aside and gave me a saints medallion of St. John Neumann and told me of St. Johns quote “A man must always be ready, for death comes when and where God wills it. - Saint John Neumann” He also told me no matter what to come home alive, to not let myself die. I followed his instruction like a good grandchild.

So here lies my Grandfather, father, friend, mentor, warrior, lifeguard, and caring soul, finally taken by the heart attack in which he has had many battles, taken while serving his community by handing out food at the food bank he volunteered helped run. A man a few words but has said so much to everyone, always busy but always had time for you. Up at 6am and bed by 10pm. 101 things to do every week and six tee times to keep. Devoted to everyone, but especially God. Now the hardest thing to do is how to end this, I figure the best way to do it is how I wrote it, I never did write this in my head, but from my heart, I think that will make a good ending.

Grandpa I know you’re about to tee off on the golden back nine, but just wanted to say I love you, we all love you and miss you.