Wednesday, August 28, 2002
Dale: And let perpetual light shine upon him.
Two Sundays ago, after Mass ended, Dan Maleski, I and our spouses walked in St. Mary's parking lot enjoying the bright afternoon sunshine. He showed me his new Buick LeSabre while his wife Karen spoke with Heather and Maddie. We checked under the hood, marvelling at the heady V-6, and examined all of the other features of the loaded vehicle: leather, a CD player and a trunk you could stuff a side of beef into with room to spare. Yes, the vehicle had a lot of miles, but as Dan pointed out, his van had almost 220,000 miles, and he had a buyer lined up for it. Trust me--the buyer is getting a vehicle that should be good for another 200,000 miles. We talked some more about the usual pleasant topics, including the vacation he and Karen were about to go on and shook hands as we parted. Dan took special care to say goodbye to Maddie, and wished us luck on our impending child, which he had just learned about 20 minutes earlier after asking Heather "So--When are you having another one?" We vowed to have lunch again the next time we were up in Alma, and this time I would buy. Or at least try to.
Wednesday I saw his casket lowered into the ground at Riverside Cemetary. Dan was 44, and died after a massive heart attack while on that vacation.
What kind of guy was Dan? He was a doting husband to his wife Karen and father of two grown children, Angie and Andrew. He had a ready smile, firm handshake and a great sense of humor, which came in handy when forced to deal with me. Angie just graduated from Smith College and was married six weeks ago. Andrew works at a car dealership and helped us get our minivan. Andrew's getting married in the next 18 months.
Dan was, in the sterile words of obituaries, "active in his parish", which understates his faith by several orders of magnitude. A better sign can be seen from the Rosary service held during the Tuesday evening visitation: it was nearly impossible to find a parking space within a block of the funeral home. The director was astonished at both the afternoon and evening visitor totals--in excess of 250 (there are only 10,000 people in Alma). One of St. Mary's former priests arrived at the visitation in tears, apologizing that he wouldn't be able to preside at Dan's liturgy because of the death of another one of his friends.
Dan worked for a company that manufactures die sets (as in tool and die), and had done so for 17 years. He wasn't in management, although he was a foreman. The company has 9 facilities across the U.S. What did the company think of Dan? The CEO attended Dan's funeral, cutting short a trip to the plant in California to do so.
The funeral procession leaving St. Mary's in Alma was over a half mile long, with attendance at the funeral mass rivaling the weekend masses.
And, mercifully, the presider at the funeral (a different priest who also had been at the parish for several years before being rotated out) knew Dan and his family personally, and was able to talk about what a joy it was to watch Dan's faith come alive as he started to participate in various parish ministries, which included being an Extraordinary Minister and a member of the Knights of Columbus.
Another one of those ministries was the "Adopt an Alma College Student" program, whereby St. Mary's parishioners meet an out of town Catholic student and act as a surrogate family for that student--having them over for dinner, picking them up for mass and so forth. In 1989, the student the Maleskis adopted was Heather. At that point, Heather had not gone through Confirmation, believing that she had not been ready in 9th grade. Now, tentatively, she thought she was and asked the priest if she could get confirmed in Alma. Father said "absolutely" and entered her in the RCIA. Dan was her sponsor, and ensured she made it to the classes and to Mass.
In 1993, Heather's father suffered a massive heart attack, from which he died a week later. It was Dan and Karen who had the grim duty of telling her that horrible news, and Dan took her down to the hospital in Warren in the middle of a nighttime snowstorm, a 140 mile trip one way and two and a half hours on a good day. He got back to Alma in time to go to his scheduled shift at the plant.
I wish I had known Dan longer, but I am thankful to have known him, period. I am also thankful for the role he played in keeping the embers of Heather's faith glowing. Who can say where we'd be without the actions he took? We can't know, but with hope we will find out. I strongly suspect that many, many people came to Christ or stayed in Him because of Dan Maleski.
I want to see God and, in order to see him, I must die.--St. Teresa of Avila, Life, Chapter 1.
I trust that if you haven't seen Him already, you soon will. Rest in peace, good servant.
Two Sundays ago, after Mass ended, Dan Maleski, I and our spouses walked in St. Mary's parking lot enjoying the bright afternoon sunshine. He showed me his new Buick LeSabre while his wife Karen spoke with Heather and Maddie. We checked under the hood, marvelling at the heady V-6, and examined all of the other features of the loaded vehicle: leather, a CD player and a trunk you could stuff a side of beef into with room to spare. Yes, the vehicle had a lot of miles, but as Dan pointed out, his van had almost 220,000 miles, and he had a buyer lined up for it. Trust me--the buyer is getting a vehicle that should be good for another 200,000 miles. We talked some more about the usual pleasant topics, including the vacation he and Karen were about to go on and shook hands as we parted. Dan took special care to say goodbye to Maddie, and wished us luck on our impending child, which he had just learned about 20 minutes earlier after asking Heather "So--When are you having another one?" We vowed to have lunch again the next time we were up in Alma, and this time I would buy. Or at least try to.
Wednesday I saw his casket lowered into the ground at Riverside Cemetary. Dan was 44, and died after a massive heart attack while on that vacation.
What kind of guy was Dan? He was a doting husband to his wife Karen and father of two grown children, Angie and Andrew. He had a ready smile, firm handshake and a great sense of humor, which came in handy when forced to deal with me. Angie just graduated from Smith College and was married six weeks ago. Andrew works at a car dealership and helped us get our minivan. Andrew's getting married in the next 18 months.
Dan was, in the sterile words of obituaries, "active in his parish", which understates his faith by several orders of magnitude. A better sign can be seen from the Rosary service held during the Tuesday evening visitation: it was nearly impossible to find a parking space within a block of the funeral home. The director was astonished at both the afternoon and evening visitor totals--in excess of 250 (there are only 10,000 people in Alma). One of St. Mary's former priests arrived at the visitation in tears, apologizing that he wouldn't be able to preside at Dan's liturgy because of the death of another one of his friends.
Dan worked for a company that manufactures die sets (as in tool and die), and had done so for 17 years. He wasn't in management, although he was a foreman. The company has 9 facilities across the U.S. What did the company think of Dan? The CEO attended Dan's funeral, cutting short a trip to the plant in California to do so.
The funeral procession leaving St. Mary's in Alma was over a half mile long, with attendance at the funeral mass rivaling the weekend masses.
And, mercifully, the presider at the funeral (a different priest who also had been at the parish for several years before being rotated out) knew Dan and his family personally, and was able to talk about what a joy it was to watch Dan's faith come alive as he started to participate in various parish ministries, which included being an Extraordinary Minister and a member of the Knights of Columbus.
Another one of those ministries was the "Adopt an Alma College Student" program, whereby St. Mary's parishioners meet an out of town Catholic student and act as a surrogate family for that student--having them over for dinner, picking them up for mass and so forth. In 1989, the student the Maleskis adopted was Heather. At that point, Heather had not gone through Confirmation, believing that she had not been ready in 9th grade. Now, tentatively, she thought she was and asked the priest if she could get confirmed in Alma. Father said "absolutely" and entered her in the RCIA. Dan was her sponsor, and ensured she made it to the classes and to Mass.
In 1993, Heather's father suffered a massive heart attack, from which he died a week later. It was Dan and Karen who had the grim duty of telling her that horrible news, and Dan took her down to the hospital in Warren in the middle of a nighttime snowstorm, a 140 mile trip one way and two and a half hours on a good day. He got back to Alma in time to go to his scheduled shift at the plant.
I wish I had known Dan longer, but I am thankful to have known him, period. I am also thankful for the role he played in keeping the embers of Heather's faith glowing. Who can say where we'd be without the actions he took? We can't know, but with hope we will find out. I strongly suspect that many, many people came to Christ or stayed in Him because of Dan Maleski.
I want to see God and, in order to see him, I must die.--St. Teresa of Avila, Life, Chapter 1.
I trust that if you haven't seen Him already, you soon will. Rest in peace, good servant.
