Erin Pope Pa

[Rhett Espinoza]

Funeralservice for Erin Pope, age 88 of Sulphur Springs, Texas will be held at 2:00P.M. on Friday, September 8, 2023, at Murray-Orwosky Funeral Home with Shane Carrington officiating. Interment will be held at a later date. A visitation will be held one hour prior to the service. Mrs. Pope passed away on September 3, 2023, at her residence where she was lovingly cared for by her son and daughter-in-law.

Erin was born on September 19, 1934, in Rockwall, Texas to Jeff and Bonnie (Wilkie) Boyd. She married Thomas C. Pope in 1956. Erin worked in garment manufacturing for many years. Her passion after retirement was volunteering, especially for the Salvation Army and the YMCA. She also volunteered at sporting events when her boys were in school. Erin loved her family, she was a devoted mother, mother-in-law and grandmother and had a generous giving heart to her family.

She is survived by her sons, Billy Becton Pope and wife, Vanessa, Tony Pope and wife, Karren; grandchildren, Amelia Crumpton and husband, Jarod, Emily Coe and husband, Jeremy, Mitchell Pope and Rebecca Pope; great-grandchildren, Justin Crumpton, Addison Crumpton, Shelby Coe and Sadie Coe; brother, Wilkie Boyd and wife, Sandra.

One year ago today was a beautiful crisp, sunny day. I packed up the car to head to a show at one of my favorite boutiques, Van Jean, to meet up with the Novel girls for a joint trunk show. I had my 5 month old daughter in tow. My mom was meeting me at the show to keep my daughter. We were staying in a hotel near Van Jean that night and headed to Charleston the following day for another show at Novel.

Anyway, I arrived at Van Jean and dropped my sweet girl with my mom, met up with the Novel girls, and set up for the trunk show. Like I said, it was a BEAUTIFUL day and we were having a great time catching up with all the cute ladies at Van Jean and Jackie from Leap Frog. I got a coffee for a little extra afternoon jolt, found a new pair of jeans to wear that day, and lots of cute fun people started coming to the show.

The next 6 days I spent getting some strength back. I had to meet certain goals to get moved out of the ICU and then to get to go home. I was waken up every hour on the hour for two weeks and asked questions like, Who is the president? What year is it?

We returned home the following week and I spent about 2 weeks in bed full time and then slowly began going back to work and life. I was left with double vision from nerve damage, a half shaved head from emergency surgery to put a shunt in my head the night I got to the hospital, and very little energy. I would say considering where I had been less than a month before, things were looking pretty good.

Every day this year I have felt a little better than the one before it. Every day this year I have tried to focus on being thankful for every little smile from my children, every goal accomplished, every hug from my saint of a husband gives me. I am not sure if they removed a part of my brain that worries or focuses on silly things, or if I have such a grand perspective now, but I am thankful for it. I am thankful to be here today and to have had the AMAZING support of all of my friends, and my incredible family, and some strangers. I would not have made it through this year without each of you. I know I owe lots of people thank you notes, and I will get to them one day. Sometimes it is difficult to put into words that people collectively saved my life and got me back to normal (or at least the new normal).

This year has been very special in an odd way. Our little family riding to work/school together each day; my hubby stepping up in a major way to make our new life manageable; and my mom spending every week day with us. These are things I will miss and think of fondly.

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Phyllis Pope

PHYLLIS A. POPE, age 83 of Waterville died on Thursday, January 23, 2020 at her home.

Born on November 13, 1936 at home in Waterville Township, Le Sueur County, Minnesota, she was the daughter of Edgar and Adelia (Roemhildt) Morsching. She attended school at St. Peters "Bell" Lutheran before graduating from Waterville High School. Following her schooling, Phyllis moved to the Twin Cities where she worked for a short time. She returned to Waterville and married Del Pope on September 8, 1957 at St. Peters "Bell" Lutheran Church. In 1959, they moved to Belle Plaine, MN where they started their family. They returned to Waterville in 1962 where Phyllis and Del continued to build the family business, Kamp Dels. Above all, family and raising her seven children came first. She loved family gatherings and summer trips to Alexandria. She also loved to read and play cards. Phyllis was strong in her faith and had been a devout member of Trinity Lutheran Church in Waterville where she was active with the quilters and altar guild.

She is survived by her children, Toya (Tim) Schmidtke of Waterville, Chia (Randy) Roemhildt of Elysian, Kara (Mike) Kinniry of Waterville, Nyl (Pat) Pope of Waterville, Kyna (Doug) Harmon of Elysian, Rhea (Chad) Atherton of Waterville, and Tobin (Erin) Pope of Waterville; 25 grandchildren; 16 great-grandchildren with four more on the way. She is also survived by her sister, Eleanor Youngerberg of Mankato and sister-in-law, Jeneane Snyder of Cloquet and many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents; husband; one sister, Ruth Dahl; and one brother, Paul Morsching.

Visitation will be held at the Waterville Chapel of Dennis Funeral & Cremation Services on Tuesday, January 28, 2020 from 4-8 PM and continue on Wednesday, one hour before services at the church. Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, January 29, 2020 at 10:30 AM at Trinity Lutheran Church in Waterville. Burial will follow at Sakatah Cemetery in Waterville.

Pope Francis has been named Time magazine's Person of the Year. But what do American Catholics make of their widely-praised new pope? Most people like how he accepts everybody that wants to be part of the church.

DAVID GREENE, HOST: This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm David Greene.Pope Francis is celebrating his first Christmas as pope at the Vatican. He's had quite a year. Time Magazine hailed him as the People's Pope when they named him Person of the Year. And this week, NBC called the pope's question "Who am I to judge?" the most powerful phrase of the year.NPR's Nathan Rott went out to see how American Catholics in the pews feel about the new pontiff.(SOUNDBITE OF CHURCH BELLS)NATHAN ROTT, BYLINE: I am standing across the street from the Holy Name Cathedral in downtown Chicago, Illinois. It is a cold and gray Sunday morning. And we are going to see what churchgoers here think of Pope Francis.JOANNA BRUNETTEI: We love him. We love him.WALLY LAMACKI: Frank, that's his name, Frank. We love him to pieces.GLORIA LAMACKI: Yeah. He's doing a good job.STEVE WOLFE: Breath of fresh air.ROTT: What you just heard from: Joanna Brunettei, Wally and Gloria Lamacki, and Steve Wolfe, was similar what I heard from almost everyone walking into this Sunday Mass.Their reasons differ. Some said they liked Pope Francis because of his focus on addressing poverty, while others said it was because of his actions - how he lives in a meager guesthouse instead of the plush papal apartment, or how he drives a used car. But the main reason people gave for their adoration was summed up by Alexis Ferrand.ALEXIS FERRAND: How he accepts everybody that wants to be part of the church, and that's how it should be.ROTT: You find that sentiment all around the country. A recent poll by the Washington Post and ABC showed that 94 percent of American Catholics approve of Pope Francis.And that spans from the old, to the young. Michael "Mookie" Cruz Malalili is a student at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He says students like him approve of Francis because he's shifted the church's focus onto something many young people actually care about: economic disparity.MICHAEL CRUZ MALALILI: I feel like at times, the battles that we kind of fight for might not be the most appropriate at that exact time. Like right now there's a lot of energy being expended, you know, towards, like, gay marriage and gay rights, right, when there's people on the streets dying because they don't even have food.ROTT: This shift in the rhetoric is widely popular. But some Catholics point out that it's not a change in actual beliefs.ERIN SAIZ HANNA: Pope Francis seems to be wonderful on so many issues, and really standing with the people, except when it comes to women in the church. And unfortunately, we're just seeing a lot of the same old sexism there.ROTT: Erin Saiz Hanna is the executive director of the Women's Ordination Conference. She says, yeah, the tone has changed. But...HANNA: It's simply not OK to be in this tizzy about Pope Francis and say, hey, this is not OK. Women are not being treated well in our church and throughout greater society.ROTT: Another concern Hanna has about the media's love affair with Pope Francis is that it suggests the pope may be more important than the people in the pews. That's a sentiment shared by another progressive Catholic group, Call to Action.Jim Fitzgerald is its executive director. He says that most American Catholics support equal marriage rights. So the pope's seeming welcome of gay people into the church, is far behind where the bulk of laity fall on the issue.JIM FITZGERALD: When Pope Francis says who am I to judge, it can come across in the media as a huge change. Well, it is a huge change because the pope said it. but the church has spoken on this in terms of the laity and their support for LGBT equality.ROTT: Fitzgerald says the hoopla surrounding Francis' statements can distort what he's actually trying to say.That's a concern shared by conservative Catholics as well, including Monsignor Walter Rossi, the rector of the Basilica of the National Shrine in Washington, D.C. He says Pope Francis isn't changing any beliefs around issues like abortion or homosexuality.MONSIGNOR WALTER ROSSI: He is saying that in addition to what we have been doing, we also have to refocus on those who are poor, those that are most needy.ROTT: Rossi says it's important to acknowledge that there is a strong continuity between Pope Francis and all of his predecessors. And it's something worth stressing to people that are enthusiastic about Francis.REVEREND JAMES ERPS: You have to be careful not to reduce him to a social activist.ROTT: That's Reverend James Erps. He's the director of campus ministry at Loyola Marymount.ERPS: He's talking about social issues and he's very concerned about it. But it's also in the context of a bigger picture. What's the basic message of Christianity? Compassion is the basic, you know. What did Jesus come to teach?ROTT: Erps says it's that universal message that's engaging both Catholics and non-Catholics alike.Nathan Rott, NPR News.

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