Dorothy Fennewald
October 16, 2022
The first thing you noticed was her size. She towered over me, and reaching around her was difficult. The last time I saw her, her feet were hanging over the end of her hospital bed, and her wheelchair had a high back added on to help her stay upright.
She was strong. Her size and life demanded it. One does not raise eight kids on a farm without immense reserves of internal and external fortitude. The mashed potatoes alone were a workout, and ten Germans eat a lot of mashed potatoes! “Many hands make light work,” she always said, but her hands and spirit made light of work.
Grandma was steady. She taught grade school math for many years, and was a substitute teacher after that. After Grandpa’s father had a stroke, she worked as an aide at the nursing home. She would provide activities for the residents—things like snapping green beans—giving them the dignity of contribution and connecting them to their past. Residence in a nursing home did not excuse one from helping. Everyone worked when Grandma Dorothy was around!
Grandma was a wise and calming presence, much needed in a house with eight kids and an ornery husband. Add in spouses and grandchildren, and you have an immense number of conflicting personalities. Even after her kids moved down the road or across the state, whether they gathered at mass on Sunday or only for dinner on Christmas, everyone felt welcomed by Grandma.
We never lived close to Grandma and Grandpa, as many of my cousins did. I’m not convinced I even knew her—a peril of being one of the fringe grandchildren. That she cared for us, I have no doubt, but she lacked the opportunity to show it. This I do know—my mother misses her dearly. Much can be said about Grandma Dorothy, but perhaps that’s what matters most—her children miss her dearly.
I’m not sure of a specific Bible character Grandma emulated. She was diligent and steady like Ruth. She was hospitable like Sarah. Perhaps she was wise like Deborah. I am sure Bible history is full of people like Grandma, people strong and steady, calm and wise. Such people have surely been common in the ranks of God’s chosen ones, even if they’ve been lost in history. The Beatitudes will be the Gospel reading at her funeral, a fitting selection. Books are not often written about the exemplars of the Beatitudes. Few pay attention to the meek, the pure in heart, the peacemakers. Grand people doing grand deeds fill the books; Dorothy Fennewald was none of those things. But her example will live on in the hearts of her children and everyone she touched, if they will but have eyes to see it. God willing, it will even live on in me.
—John Coffey
