Mom's Eulogy

Gilda Lena Mascitti

July 3, 2013 

 

Good morning everyone and thank you all for coming to honor the memory of

Gilda Lena Portelli Mascitti, or to many of us, Aunt Gil!

 

If there was any pressure for me in speaking to you today, it was quickly diffused early this morning. I awoke to find a travel-wrinkled dress shirt

…which I had to iron…with my Aunt Gil’s quality in mind – It took me awhile!

 

In his poetic description about the mystery of the Eucharistic transformation

(You know, “Blood is poured and flesh is broken”), St. Thomas Aquinas said in

His magnificent sequence of the Mass of Corpus Christi:

 

“Sight has fail’d, nor thought conceives

But a dauntless faith believes.

Resting on a pow’r divine…”

 

Translation…

           “I can’t see it,

                                    . . . I can’t even think it,

                                                                               . . . but by God I believe it!”

 

 

A dauntless faith? … You’re looking at each other saying what is he talking about…what about Aunt Gil the Card Player?...Aunt Gil the Cook &

Housekeeper? …Aunt Gil the Jokester? (I just loved that Phyllis Diller-like

laugh, a cackling staccato, “…AH-AH-AH, that’s a good one, Rand!”)

Yes, of course, she was all of these things. But, I believe she was so much

more. 

 

In retrospect, I see her in many ways as a woman ahead of her times…an independent and artistic thinker, with keen insights into, and empathy for, others around her. And, did I mention tough-minded & outspoken?

 

Several years ago, for her 80th birthday, I found this antique badge pin for her here in downtown Naperville. It read, “1927 Girl – Obey Me and Nobody Gets

Hurt!” As her kids can well attest, she could be feisty and insisted on calling her own shots - a father’s daughter if there ever was one—a salute Federico!

 

Above all else, in speaking of kids and family, I know that my Aunt Gil had a deep love for hers and an uncommon devotion to their well-being. How deep and how uncommon? When I would ask her about the condition of a stressed-out son, she’d reply, “Oh God, I pray every day, every day that he finds peace in his work! And, the son found peace. When one of the flock strayed from the fold, she’d say,

“Oh, I pray to God every day, every day that the angels in heaven return him home! And, he returned. Then, finally, how is that seriously ill daughter doing… it’s grave, isn’t it? Same reply …you know the ending…there she sits, beautiful as ever.

A dauntless faith, indeed!

Peace to you, Auntie (throw a kiss to her); your work here is done.

Randy