Michael and Margaret Fenelon. Heaven has become a reality! This is the gift Father Kentenich has given to us through this life that is ours, our Schoenstatt life. 45 years ago Heaven once again touched the earth in a very real way. On February 23, 1964 our parents, Raymond and Eleanor Yank, invited Father to their home asking that the Blessed Mother might be drawn down into their home shrine to make it a place of grace. The reality of her presence there as Mother and Educator over the many years has proven to be true in all aspects of life, as father and mother and all the seven children, spouses, and eventual 31 grandchildren would be given the grace to strive to grow in childlikeness before God. The growth is never ending, and continues on.
We were blessed to have my parents move into our home with us on June 6, 2008. The gift of having them in our home is beyond compare. Now the grace of two home shrines, ours, and theirs blessed by Father, together would fill our hearts and home to overflowing. When we realized that it was the 45th anniversary of their home shrine we asked Fr. Langsch to come to our home on February 23, 2009 and renew this dedication. The celebration was simple and beautiful, and little did any of us know how necessary this “new in-break of the Divine”, as Father Kentenich had called renewals, would be for each of us. Within 6 months both father and mother would leave this earthly home and go into eternity. This precious time spent together, is a gift that we will always be grateful for.
The last weeks and months together were, as we gaze back at them, a “school of love” with our Mother continuing as our most perfect Educator. We would like to share some of these moments with you that you may rejoice with us in the abundant and merciful love of our Heavenly Father and the care of our Mother and her loving Son.
Raymond Peter Yank
Born to Life – February 19, 1919 Born to Eternal Life – June 16, 2009
Raymond was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as an only child, whose father died when he was 7 years old and his mother when he was 9. His parents came from Austria, of which he was very proud. An uncle and aunt took him into their family and raised him as if he were their own.
Raymond was a humble and unassuming man whose faith and family were everything to him. He was the first to acknowledge that Fr. Kentenich was responsible for this central focus and formation in his life. In 1959, in the 12th year of their marriage, Raymond and Eleanor met Fr. Kentenich and began attending his Monday Night Talks. Their great love for Schoenstatt and their desire to grow in holiness in marriage and family life led them to become founding members of the 1st course – Filia Crucis Grata – of our Schoenstatt Family Institute in the USA/Puerto Rico delegation. They were the first superiors of the delegation.
The Family Institute became Raymond’s life blood and he lived and breathed this spirituality. He found solace and spiritual strength through the many crosses and sufferings in his life. In 1994, when a major stroke paralyzed his right side and he was unable to speak, he submitted to intense rehabilitation therapy. The first thing he asked for, several weeks later when he was able to begin writing (with his left hand now) and speaking again, was his spiritual schedule. His spiritual life and practice were most important to him no matter what physical condition he was in.
He rarely complained throughout the 15 years of life after his stroke, though it changed his life dramatically. You could see him offering every labored movement, every inability to do all the things he used to and wanted to do. He remained cheerful and with a sense of humor.
Being “with him”
It was a great joy that Raymond and Eleanor could live in our home for the last year of his life. He never wanted to burden us, but we felt the blessing of not only being able to give them a home with us, but also being able to care for our own Family Institute members (for we also are members of our Family Institute, in the 2nd course.) Life as a community became a blessed reality.
The week before Raymond died, both he and Eleanor were in critical care at the hospital at the same time. The nursing staff noticed how difficult it was for Eleanor in the Cardiac Unit to struggle into a wheelchair to visit Raymond in the Intensive Care Unit with the family members running back and forth between the units. Once it was certain that Raymond was dying and there was nothing else that could be done for him they needed to move him out of his present room. The staff could see the devotion between the two of them and that of the family and offered to put them in the same room together. This was a blessing to many. All the different hospital staff members who came to the room were at first surprised to see a man and a woman in the same room, and then were touched when they realized this was a married couple of 62 years. They saw Eleanor holding Raymond’s hand, talking to him and praying “with him” even as he was in a coma. Many left with tears in their eyes. We heard later that they were the talk of the hospital staff from the food service workers to the doctors and nurses. The family doctor of Raymond and Eleanor later said that he has never had so many nurses come up to him and speak of how touched and moved they were over this experience. He said they and the family were a beautiful witness to the bond of love and unity. We of course know this was our Schoensatt witness to the power of the covenant of love lived together in our home shrines.
We brought Raymond back to our home, our home shrines, to spend his final days. God is so merciful in these circumstances. The MTA worked out the means and timing of all events. We didn’t have to worry. The week before Raymond died he was able to talk to all of his seven children by telephone or in person, just hours before he went into a coma. After he was brought home all of the children and their families were able to peacefully “visit” with him and say their last goodbyes. When he was brought home the doctors didn’t even know if he was going to be able to survive the transfer. He not only survived the transfer, he stayed alive for the last son, Ray, to arrive and say goodbye two days later. Four hours after saying goodbye Raymond died peacefully with Eleanor and five of us around him. Just an hour before we had sung the Schoenstatt litany and were able to pray over him and bless him as he was dying.
Vigil in the Exile Shrine
The funeral was again a witness to our Schoenstatt spirituality and our Family Institute life. It was simple and dignified. Raymond was placed in the Exile Shrine for an all night vigil with family and Schoenstatt family visiting him throughout the night. The Exile Shrine was central to Raymond and Eleanor’s formation by our Father and Founder during his time in Milwaukee. His coffin was a beautiful, plain wooden box made by Patrick Fenelon, Mike’s brother, similar to that of John Paul II – a sign of “our wealth of poverty”. In fact the entire final weeks period leading up to his funeral were a practice in “poverty” – gratitude, self-surrender, looking deeper, worrying moderately, letting go. The funeral Mass was at Saint Vincent Pallotti Church next to the shrine. Father also offered Mass many times in this church. Over 200 people attended. Our Schoenstatt Fathers, Fr. Gerold Langsch and Fr. Peter Locher, celebrated the Mass with the Schoenstatt Sister’s choir singing. Raymond was then buried at Calvary Cemetery, where Father had spent so many hours walking and meeting people during the Exile years. Many people remarked on the simplicity, beauty and depth of the funeral service, as being one of the most beautiful they had ever attended. It was a great testament to the transformative power of the Covenant of Love and the mission of our Father and Founder and our Family Institute.
We thank all of those in our Schoenstatt Family who traveled with us spiritually and sent messages of consolation during this time for it was the many sacrifices and prayers that assisted all of us through it. It was a beautiful witness to our truly being a Family of Father.
Eleanor Margaret Yank
Born to Life ~ March 28, 1918 Born to Eternal Life ~ August 27, 2009
“The mission is fulfilled!” These words, spoken by someone who was very close to the hearts of Eleanor and Raymond, express everything. Their life journey together as faithful children of our Father and Founder, formed in his “School of Milwaukee”, and led through the transforming reality of our Family Institute community, finally came to its earthly end as Eleanor went to meet Raymond in our Eternal Home.
When Raymond died on June 16th at home in the middle of the night, Eleanor was lying asleep by his side. When he had drawn his final breath we were able to finally wake her and told her very carefully that, “Dad has gone to our Heavenly Home.” We were concerned as to how she would react. There was no need to worry ~ for she just lay there and said, “Oh, how wonderful!!” Then she reached for his hand and began to pray “with him”. About a month later she was very sick again, and as she lay once more in the hospital, she woke up one morning and told us with such joy in her eyes of the dream she had. Raymond was beckoning to her with his hand and saying, “Come on Ellie!” She cherished this “message” from him and never stopped yearning to be with him. After she returned home to our home shrines she still kept this memory in her heart and decided she did not want to return to the hospital anymore – she was ready to go “Home” when our Heavenly Father called.
It is your love we will proclaim, profess
She desired so much to be in our Heavenly Home – she had said one time after our father died (a little bit disgruntled) “And we had agreed that I would go first!” This was foremost in her heart – she was ready – she worried that we would try and keep her here too long. We had to reassure her that God would find the way to take her home and He knew the time – we couldn’t, and wouldn’t, hold on to her once He called her.It was difficult in the following 2 ½ months to make her truly joyful. She tried her hardest to please us, but we knew where her heart lay and she couldn’t be fully content until she rested with her Raymond in Him. The Covenant reality became our every day, every moment reality. She wondered often why she was still here, and we spoke together about God wanting and needing her here yet to fulfill her mission, and that meant offering every difficulty, every moment into the hands of our Mother in the home shrine – living the Blank Check and Inscriptio. She often would repeat two words from one of the Heavenwards English translations, from the Blank Check prayer, “proclaim – profess”: “It is your love we will proclaim, profess.” This sums up mom’s life – definitely with her words, sharing her thoughts on spiritual life, but more so with her being she proclaimed and professed the reality of God’s love in her life.She became more and more childlike towards the end of her life ~ completely a child of the Father, struggling at times but continually trying to reach out her hand, to say her yes to His loving plan. We felt the reality in her life, that Heaven touches the earth and becomes so much more real. Heaven ~ the goal of our life, at home in the heart of God, together with Raymond and all the other family members and Schoenstatt members ~ this was what was real for Eleanor.
She tried, throughout the difficult moments, to live the ideal of their home shrine ~ Heroic Confidence – in the spirit of the Magnificat. It was not always easy for her. In our family’s Living Shrine our mother’s living shrine symbol is the cross. She said several times in the recent past as she struggled with the meaning of suffering, “What was I thinking when I chose that symbol?” Yet at the same time it brought her comfort sharing the cross with Jesus. He helped her to bear her cross.
If we rely on ourselves we lose all hope and confidence, so we reach out our hands to you, Mother and Queen
Mom remembered these words at times in her last weeks and months: “If we rely on ourselves we lose all hope and confidence, so we reach out our hands to you, Mother and Queen.” She said she remembered these are words Father Kentenich spoke to her in one of her personal conversations with him. They have been a light to her path. Eleanor had a very melancholic streak in her soul and she knew that she far too often fell into the trap of the first part of that spiritual advice. So she more and more often tried to live out the second part. She worried, but then she reached out her hand to her Mother and found peace there – especially in the grace of the home shrine.
Since I had become her main care giver (supported thankfully by a wonderful husband and generous family members) I had prayed a simple prayer asking only that I not be alone when the time came for her to leave us. Our Loving Father had a different plan. The day before Eleanor died she told us that she thought she was dying. We didn’t know if it was wishful thinking and her desire or if it was real, for she had said this before. By the next morning it was clear that she was beginning to struggle to breath. She asked for a priest. I was going to wait to call the parish until the nurse, who was expected to come very soon, could check her. But then it must have been my guardian angel who prompted me to call immediately. When I called I was told that the pastor was out of town for 4 days, and one of the other priests was not returning home until the next day. The only remaining priest, Fr. Simon, had less than an hour available before a completely full afternoon schedule and then a trip out of town. If I hadn’t called at that very time I wouldn’t have been able to reach a priest, for they all would have been gone. Fr. Simon came immediately and gave her the Sacrament of the Sick and Viaticum – “Food for the journey”. They had a beautiful conversation together. She told him she was afraid. He told her not to worry, she was human and that is part of who we are. She looked up to Heaven and said, “Help my unbelief”. After they spoke a while longer he had to leave. She smiled and raised her hand though she was very weak, and took his hand and told him thank you and God bless you. He came from her room so filled with the experience and marveling at the depth of her faith.
She was singing with her joyful eyes
Since I was alone now with my mother the next four hours were very full. I would come and help her as much as I could and pray with her, and then go out to call another of my six siblings to let them know how our mother was doing. At about 4:45 PM I sang the Milwaukee Schoenstatt Pioneer Couples’ motto/song that was loved by Father and held a special place in my father and mother’s hearts and is engraved on their tombstone ~ Patris atque Matris sum nunc et in perpetuum – Vivat Santuarium! “I belong to the Father and to the Mother, now and for all eternity ~ Long live the Shrine!” My mother could no longer make herself understood so I watched as she moved her lips, but she was singing with her joyful eyes. This is my very last image of my loving mother, struggling to breathe, yet joyful and filled with peace. I then stepped out of the room for a couple of minutes to call our daughter Sarah. In those few moments, Eleanor, so like a mother not wanting her child to suffer, quietly and peacefully went home to Ray.
Over two hundred people were present for her funeral. Just like for Ray, there was an all night vigil with her in the Exile shrine. Many of the family members and grand children spent an hour with her in the shrine that night. We could feel Father’s real presence there with us. It was a beautiful celebration of Eleanor’s entering into Eternal Life. Fr. Gerold Langsch once again offered the funeral Mass and gave so much of himself in the beautiful words of his homily; he too is truly a “part of our family”. And once again our Schoenstatt Sisters sang so beautifully and gave their all to help support their spiritual “family”. The funeral director approached Mike after laying Eleanor to rest beside Ray and said she was so very impressed with this funeral. She has been working in this line of service for many years and she has never witnessed such a reverent, beautiful and dignified ceremony. She said she probably would never see one like this again.
In the School of Milwaukee
The day after the funeral we met Fr. Simon again after Mass. He was glowing thinking of the experience he had with Eleanor. He said he didn’t really think she was afraid in the human sense, but she had a “holy trembling” knowing she was going to meet God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth. She was so ready with one foot on earth and one already in Eternity. He thanked Marge for the honor to be with her mother in the last hours. Another couple at our parish said that at Fr. Simon’s Monday morning Mass for the parish he gave his entire homily on his experience with Eleanor and what it means to live a true, Christian, faith-filled, holy life in union with the Blessed Mother.
This is a great testament to being a faithful child of our Father and Founder and being opened to formation in the “School of Milwaukee.” We truly have a precious legacy and we can never underestimate the gift our Father gave to us and the transformative power of our Covenant of Love and our Schoenstatt Family Institute. We are Father’s living witnesses whether we are young and full of life, or in a bed with just enough energy to raise our hand in our final moments of life. And the mission of childlike surrender goes on and on.
