written and read by Maureen Strenfel
St. Christopher Church - March 13, 2009

 
My name is Maureen and I am Dan’s only daughter and the youngest of his five children. 
 
How can you put 89 years into a few paragraphs? And yet I will attempt to do so now for you. Knowing full well that I present only one small perspective of who Daniel John Strenfel was. 
 
Dan was a husband, a father, a grandfather, a friend, an animal lover, a gardener and a mechanic.
 
The earliest memory I have of my father is sitting on his knee and eating a Popsicle.

The last memory I have of my father is of him taking his last breath while I held his hand. 

I’d like to share some lyrics from a song called “When all is said & done”

“When the music fades into the past…when my days of life are thru, what will be remembered of where I have come…when all is said & done…Will they say I loved my family? That I was a faithful friend? When all is said and done…”

Dad,

You will be remembered for your generosity to complete strangers as well as family and friends.

You will be remembered for your unfailing sense of humor and gentle teasing.

You will be remembered for the kindness and compassion you showed to people who need a father or grandfather figure.

You will be remembered for helping those in need even if it meant you had to work a little longer that day. (Dan would often not charge for fixing an automobile; especially if he knew the family was in need. This was much to my mother’s horror who was trying to feed us 5 kids at home.)

You will be remembered for loving animals, especially that wild Skeeter and the gentle Jitters.

You will be remembered for focusing on what’s really important in life:  providing for your family, helping others and remembering to smile every day. (I can’t even count on one hand the number of complaints he made about life or about others in his 89 years on this planet.)

You will be remembered for letting small things be forgiven …and somehow making most things turn small at the end of the day.

You will be remembered for all things mechanical…    (Even in the few weeks he had left in this life, he was coaching the nursing staff at Los Gatos Community Hospital on how to fix his broken hospital bed.)

You will be remembered for loving a girl name Rosemary and cherishing her memory long after she left this world.

You will be remembered for eating everything on your plate until the day you died and never complaining once. (DAD – it is OK to say you don’t like Chinese food!)

You will be remembered for your vast hat collection.

You will be remembered for your Dodge Pickup and your favorite saying “punch it!”

But most of all Dad, you will be remembered for the love in your heart. Love that now shines in the hearts of all who knew you.

My brother Jim said it so well last night at the memorial service. “It is not all the wealth you have accumulated in your lifetime, it is not all the material things you have surrounded yourself with but in the end, it is the love in all the people that you have touched, is all that will remain behind.” 

It is here, at the end of all things, at the gathering of friends and family that have come to love and respect you…that is what really and truly reveals who the man Daniel John Strenfel was.

Daniel, Dan, Papa and Dad –  because you have been all these things to many, many, people….. we want you to know that we love you and that we will all miss you…. But you will remain in our hearts forever. 

Until we see you again, goodbye for now.