Lyndell Marie Meuth

by Mark Meuth

Mom was born on August 2, 1940 to Bill and Dora Kadura and entered into her eternal rest August 3, 2004. She was the oldest of five children. One of her duties as the oldest was to bathe her brothers every Saturday night in a number 3 washtub. She did this every Saturday night and every Saturday night she bribed them to stay clean for just an hour -- promising she'd pay them a nickel if they could just manage it that long. And every Saturday night passed with NOT A NICKEL coming out of Mom's pocket.

In 1958, Mom graduated from Sacred Heart Catholic School in Rockne. She was in the top 10% of her class. In fact, she was the valedictorian and president, of A WHOPPING CLASS OF TEN.

On January 28, 1961, her life took a new turn. She married Marcus Meuth, my dad, at Sacred Heart Church in Rockne. She said that it was a very cold day and sleet covered the ground, but by the end of the day the sun was out and the birds were chirping. Mom and Dad always had an eventful marriage, and nothing was different about that on their first night together. You see, they tried to sneak away from the reception, head out to the honeymoon early, but all these plans came to a screeching halt when their car wouldn't start. So, they were forced to shuffle back into the reception, so that they could get their car jumped . . . and then make their great escape.

In 1962, during complications related to the birth of her second child, Mom had to undergo an emergency blood transfusion. This is when and how she contracted hepatitis C, a disease that she battled the rest of her life. Very few people knew (of her pain) just how much of a battle she really did have to fight every single day. She didn't burden people with her problems, she always put others first.

By 1989, Mom was in dire need of a liver transplant, so she and Dad traveled to Dallas, where in October, she received her new liver. This was a very difficult time for our family, and we will never forget the support that we received here, from the Rockne community. This was very important to Mom, her apartment walls in Dallas, were covered with your cards and letters. We will also forever be indebted to the unknown donor of her new liver, and the family. That donor gave my whole family and me an additional 15 years to create wonderful memories, and we keep them in our prayers.

The decision to have the transplant was based not only on her goal to live, but also to see her youngest child, Michelle, graduate from high school. She not only succeeded in seeing her graduate from high school but also from college. While Michelle was in college, she entered an essay about her parent�s trials, sacrifices, and numerous good times. The essay won them the "Parents of the Year" award, something that made Mom very proud.

As each goal was met, Mom would continually set new goals. After reaching the goal of seeing Michelle graduate, her focus became her grandchildren and guiding them in all aspects of their lives. She was her grandchildren's biggest fan in all of their activities, especially soccer and baseball games. Her grandson Chris attributes every goal he scored to his grandma's attendance, because he's never scored a goal, unless she was there.

She was also their financial advisor and loan officer, but more importantly, their confidant. Mom, Michelle and Jaime were returning from an outing when the car mysteriously collided with the house. Mom explained to Dad that her foot slipped off the brake pedal.....In the words of Paul Harvey, this is the rest of the story. Jaime had convinced her Grandma she could drive, although she was still too young for her Driver's License. Mom got everyone's seat belts on, and instructed Jaime as she pulled up the driveway. As they approached the house, she told Jaime "you are doing great, just a little closer." That's when Jaime learned the difference between the accelerator and the brake. As Jaime was bawling, Grandma turned to her and said, "Its ok, I'll tell Grandpa my foot slipped off the pedal." So, mom took the blame and dad was never the wiser. That is, until two nights ago, when he heard this story for the first time.

Mom's children and grandchildren were her first priority, and concern for her medical condition was always secondary. As an example, shortly after one of her hip replacements, when she wasn't supposed to get out of bed, much less walk, she found out her granddaughter, Jaime, was sick at school. She somehow managed to walk to her car, drive all the way to Bastrop, pick her up, and get her home safely. As usual, she never complained. Very few knew of her trials, other than her biggest supporter and faithful husband, Marcus.

Mom was the planner of yearly vacations and her favorite times were when all the family was together eating, playing dominoes, arguing over sports, etc. Many family trips were to the coast and Bend, Texas with the Dan & Margie Tucker clan and trips to Kinder with Uncle Gene and Aunt Charlene. These trips were always eventful and never dull. There was one trip to San Antonio in the early 70's, when her sons (Steve, Dwayne, and I) talked them into a roller coaster ride. Steve and Dwayne were seated in the car behind her. As the coaster was rolling in full force, something Mom forgot blew off . . . . her wig. Lucky for her, Steve was quick to catch it; of course, he had no choice because it hit him in the face. However, thinking it was a cat, he threw it overboard. So, maybe she wasn't that lucky after all. After the ride, we were all in the park searching for her wig. As I said, each of our trips always had something adventurous.

Mom also had a special fondness for Christmas. She enjoyed loading up her daughter, daughter-in-laws, and grandchildren for shopping trips in Austin. They would shop and snack, shop and snack, shop, and again snack. You get the picture. All had a wonderful time however. She had many talents but one she lacked was decorating the Christmas tree. Even though she tried, she always relied on her grandson Jeff to come and fix her mess. It bothered him that all the decorations ended up in the front of the tree and none on the sides or back. The tree itself had seen so many Meuth Christmas's and better days. Our sentimental mom refused to throw it out...until her daughter-in-law Colleen, with the help of the grandkids, snuck in a new one.

All of these were examples of gifts to our family, but her biggest gift to us was her never-ending faith. She always let us know that she was praying daily for us. Over the years, we all had many opportunities to carpool with Mom to Austin as we went to work. We thought, we might catch a few more tidbits of sleep and just let her do the driving, but Mom had other ideas. She kept us awake by insisting that we join her in praying the rosary.

These are just a few of our memories, but they are memories our family will cherish. We will always be thankful that God gave us as much time as he did.

Grandma Always
by Grandson, Jeff Meuth

GRANDMA, you made me the person I am today. You did this for my cousins and siblings just the same. Everyone you touched and everyone you knew, came away with a different point of view. You changed lives through all your struggles, because you never gave up until your job was through. But the job was not to achieve your goals, but to see your grandkids succeed and begin to grow. Your job will be completed because you showed us the way. We start our journey without you on this hot August day. We may not be able to see you, but we know you are there. Through our hopes and our dreams, we know you still care. Whenever we are feeling down and out, we just say a prayer and you will be there. Like ALWAYS