Well, he passed away this evening – likely from a stroke, almost certainly with no pain and without knowing it was happening. He had received absolution and died a good son of the Church. He kept his mental faculties up to the end – I had seen him just this afternoon. He seemed to have a bit of a stroke while I was there, but when in hospice one doesn’t call 911. He held my hand tight – a sign of affection he was normally not given to, and that is really when I knew the end was very near…
He was born in California to George Childs and Elizabeth Noonan – “Papa George” and “Nana Liz” to their multitude of grand children. George, Sr. was a veteran of the First World War and was quite a character; Elizabeth was an incredibly strong influence – mostly towards the requirements of being a Christian gentleman.
In 1944, at the age of 17, in great folly or great bravery, he joined the United States Marine Corps and served in the Saipan campaign. The memory of the Corps remained to the end among the fondest memories of my father, and the thing he was most proud of. Love of country was intrinsic to my father, and he imparted this strongly to all of his children.
After the war, my father worked in varied aspects of the aerospace industry – including, at times, working on NASA’s space program and, most notably, being part of the team which brought the F-117A Stealth Fighter to life. To work in science and to do math was a grand love and adventure of my father’s life – married to a physicist, my late mother, Barbara Jane Noonan, the talk around the family often ended up revolving around things scientific. One of the last memories I shared with my father was how, when I was about 12, my mother woke the whole family up in the middle of the night shrieking that she needed to – immediately – know the orbital rotation of Venus. Such things were usually far beyond his 5th child and 3rd son – a much greater influence on said son was his father’s philosophic bent of mind.
Dad was more Catholic than the Pope, went the family jest – too the end adhering to the Church and its teachings and, being the sort of man he was, always willing to offer a stout defense of all Catholic dogmas to all comers. I’ve never actually met another man with a stronger sense of the truth of Catholicism and the real history behind its growth and development. While I was a stubborn child and unwilling to follow where he led in this matter, I eventually accepted my Catholic legacy with gratitude – to me, to not have the Church is to not have anything at all. Upon my own death, my thanks will be to me father for transmitting me this precious gift, the finest ever given.
I shall miss him – I shall miss having to make his coffee, do his laundry, take him out to play blackjack, helping him get his scotch and soda. I will, please God, see him again along with all the faithful departed, but there is a gap in my life which will not be filled while I remain confined within the circles of this world. That gap shall be placed next to that once filled by my mother, and next to others similarly missing their proper element of my life. But it is with great joy that I contemplate my father, glorified, and seeing Our Lord, face to face.
Thank you all for your prayers during this trying time in my life and the life of my family.
“Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands afar off; say, `He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.’
For the LORD has ransomed Jacob, and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.
They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall languish no more.
Then shall the maidens rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow. – Jeremiah 31:10-13
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