Alice Pincus Zischkau Washington, District of Columbia Obituary

Alice Pincus Zischkau

<center>Alice Pincus Zischkau</center> The Mass of Christian Burial for Alice Zischkau will be celebrated at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 5, 2020, at Saint Ann Catholic Church, 4001 Yuma St NW, Washington, DC 20016. The Mass will be webcast at https://stanndc.org/funeral. Viewing will be held just before the funeral Mass starting at 12:00 p.m. in the church. The burial (space limited to family only) will be conducted at All Souls Cemetery, 11401 Brink Road, Germantown, MD 20876. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Yuma Center, 4101 Yuma St NW, Washington, DC, whose mission is to help girls and women become leaders who serve society with professionalism and joy: https://www.yumadc.org/giving Alice died on November 25, 2020, about a month before her 58th birthday. She was born in Coral Gables, Florida, to Richard and Cecilia (Green) Pincus. At that time, Alice had five older siblings, Kathy, Bill, Mary, Loretta, and Teresa. Then her family moved to Hampton, Virginia. From the mid-60’s to the mid-70’s, her parents had six more children, Stephen, Joe, Donald, Tom, Janet, and Mike. Alice spoke often of everything she learned from her parents and siblings in a family life that was marked by everyone having chores and responsibilities in the home, looking after the needs of the others, especially the younger children, family games, working in the family garden plot, attending Mass at their parish, St. Rose of Lima, reading, music, sports, and arts and crafts. Their home was a central meeting spot for the children in the neighborhood along with the little park across the street. Alice attended St. Mary’s Catholic School through eighth grade. Her father taught her and her siblings to play tennis. She and many of her siblings swam on the local swim team, and played tennis and basketball for their schools. In her high school years, she began playing the organ for her parish. She had a great love for religious music, particularly Eucharistic hymns and hymns to the Blessed Mother. She had the daily habit of attending a 6am Mass with her father before school. She graduated from Peninsula Catholic High School as valedictorian in 1981. She attended the University of Dallas, majoring in mathematics. She played on the University of Dallas tennis team. She and her roommate Erin were Dallas’ first Academic All-Americans. Her teammates remembered her motherly instincts. When the tennis team had travel tournaments, Alice would wake up well before sunrise to make cinnamon rolls for everyone using a recipe learned from her mother. In her dorm, she used to make apple pies and other baked goods to share with her floor mates. On the tennis court, “quiet Alice” was relentlessly competitive and methodical with dominating backhand and forehand strokes. She never had professional lessons like other players but her father taught her grit and perseverance on the court such that she rarely lost matches even to top players. Continuing her habit of attending daily Mass by waking up early before classes to attend Mass at the Cistercian monastery, Alice was also known to sneak into the campus chapel at nighttime to play the organ. She also would pray the rosary with her friends Julie and Mary. Her friends remember her integrating some time in personal prayer each day to help guide her study, sports, and friendships. After graduating in 1985, she began her professional career as an actuarial assistant at Wyatt & Company in Washington, DC. Alice met her husband Jon in Washington in 1987 and they used to meet each other daily at the morning Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes in Bethesda. They were married at Our Lady of Lourdes Church on October 22, 1988, during a Marian year declared by St. John Paul II. She and Jon went to Lourdes, France, at the beginning of their honeymoon, and then to Rome where they attended the newlyweds papal audience and personally greeted St. John Paul II. They also had a private audience with Blessed Alvaro del Portillo who was then the prelate bishop of Opus Dei. The prelate told Alice that her path to heaven had a name and that name was “Jon” and he told Jon that his path to heaven had a name and that name was “Alice.” Alice and Jon lived in Bethesda and attended Our Lady of Lourdes for daily Mass and attended Our Lady of Lebanon Church (a Maronite Catholic parish) on Sundays, as Jon is Maronite and had been attending this church and teaching religious education there since his arrival in Washington. Seeing the needs of the parish, Alice began teaching the preschool and kindergarten classes and over the years she helped form hundreds of students to love God with child-like simplicity. She had a knack of combining music and crafts into the lessons to teach the children to pray and how they are called to be saints and show their love for God by serving all people, starting with their own families. She left her employment with Wyatt upon the birth of their first child, Jonathan Jr., in 1989. She immediately put her heart and soul into her work as mother and home educator. Joseph was born next. What she learned in her childhood, she applied to making a bright and cheerful Christian home for her growing family. She and her family attended the beatification of St. Josemaria Escriva on May 17, 1992, while she was expecting their third child, Cecilia. The family moved from Bethesda to Washington DC and she and Jon began homeschooling their children, converting a small den into a classroom. She amassed a formidable collection of excellent books for young readers and taught each child to read at the earliest age possible. Her fourth child, Mary, was born next. In 1997, Johanna was the first of three children who died before birth. Alice’s faith and devotion to Our Lord in the Eucharist and her love for Our Lady helped her and the family through this time of suffering. Alice organized with other homeschooling parents and directed skits and plays for the children, creating the narratives, sets and props, and costumes. These were presented at nursing homes and friends’ homes. Alice and her daughters for many years have created spectacular gingerbread houses for the Christmas novena at Tenley Study Center. In honor of Our Lady, she organized May crownings with other families, and went on pilgrimages with family and friends to local shrines of Mary. She was a founding member of the St. Ann’s mothers’ group, and helped or led girls’ clubs focused on developing character and leadership through service and practice in the culinary arts. Always active with her family, schools, and church, when Matthew was born, Alice was organizing lost and found clothing collections and sales at the Heights School. Alice and the family attended the canonization of St. Josemaria in 2002 in Rome. Two years later, Suzanna was born on the feast of the Holy Guardian Angels. Alice was a model of diligence and creativity in making the home a place where the family could learn to pray, study, work, and serve God and others. She loved planning and celebrating family birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and feast days, establishing wonderful family traditions and borrowing on the experience learned from her own mother. As the children grew older, she continued to help them to be well-rounded academically and culturally by constantly acquiring excellent books, and organizing visits to museums and concerts, arranging piano lessons, encouraging A’capella and choir participation at school, and helping them to participate in sports such as soccer, swimming, and cross country/track and field. She attended as many of her children’s sporting events as possible. She loved gardening, making floral arrangements, and baking. She also enjoyed taking dancing lessons with Jon. Her life of faith continued to grow in a daily commitment to prayer, penance, the Mass, spiritual reading, and attending a monthly recollection, and an annual retreat. Alice was so grateful to God when Cecilia entered the Poor Clares cloistered monastery in Barhamsville, Virginia, on August 15, 2014. A month later, Alice and Jon and the youngest two children were able to attend the beatification of Bishop Alvaro del Portillo in Madrid on September 27, 2014. On the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows in 2017, Alice was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. She and her family invoked Blessed Alvaro del Portillo for her healing. She began treatments which while painful seemed to be effective. She cheerfully offered her suffering to God. Her heart expanded to pray for many people in need. Despite the effects of treatments, she kept up her duties in the home and her friendships and activities outside the home. She helped with the planting and upkeep of flowers at Yuma Center, worked in a family garden plot in a community garden near the home, and continued attending classes for her spiritual formation. Later, she had to undergo additional chemotherapy and radiation treatments, and was sponsored by a Knight of Malta from St. Ann’s parish to go on a pilgrimage to Lourdes in May 2018. Afterwards, she gave talks on her pilgrimage experiences to classes at Oakcrest School and at Yuma Center. Later in 2019, cancer reappeared, but that didn’t stop her from arranging for her and her sisters to attend a retreat together at Longlea Conference Center. She continually led people to opportunities to grow closer to God. By the end of March 2020, she needed more radiation treatments, during which she suffered a stroke rendering her unable to walk. Nevertheless, she maintained a cheerful attitude and constantly thought of the needs of others rather than being absorbed in her own difficulties. Her children came together and provided all the help needed to make it possible for Alice to live at home and receive physical therapy and treatments. Her last months of life on earth were marked by an endearing simplicity, peace, and joy, with a desire to help souls get closer to God. She was able to receive the sacrament of penance at home on a weekly basis and watched a webcasted Mass every day. Once St. Ann’s was open for public Masses, she attended Mass every Sunday and began attending daily Mass as well, being brought up Yuma Street in the wheelchair. When some of her siblings visited her this past summer, she told them she would like to have a big family picnic. Her siblings organized a picnic at Kathy’s farm on August 8, and Alice was able to combine this trip to the farm with what would turn out to be her last visit with her daughter Sister Laetitia at the Poor Clares monastery on August 9-10. On the evening of November 24, following a trip to the emergency room, she received the anointing of the sick for the last time, during which she suddenly awoke, opened her eyes, and became attentive. An all-night vigil ensued, with her family praying at her bedside, accompanied by her siblings, nieces, and nephews in a video webcast. She went to meet her Lord in the morning, the day before Thanksgiving. Alice is survived by her husband, Jon, and her children: Jonathan Jr., Joseph (Sarah), Sister Mary Laetitia, Mary, Matthew, and Suzanna; her eleven brothers and sisters: Kathleen (Todd), William (Maria), Mary (John), Loretta (Ed), Teresa (Thomas), Stephen (Amy), Joseph (Mary), Donald (Lori), Thomas (Stephanie), Janet (Gary), and Michael (Noelle); and her Aunt Dolores (Gregory) Milmoe, her Uncle Michael Green (Mary Jo), and her Aunt Toni Green (the wife of her deceased Uncle Joseph); over 50 first cousins; and many great nieces and nephews. She loved and prayed for her family and friends very much and we pray that she now enjoys eternal joy and peace with her Heavenly Father, and will continue to pray for all of us. Alice and Jon and their children extend a heartfelt thank you for the countless generous prayers, sacrifices, and material helps provided by Alice’s and Jon’s brothers and sisters, cousins, nieces and nephews, Oakcrest faculty, staff, parents, and students, Heights faculty, staff, parents, and students, parishioners from Our Lady of Lebanon, St. Ann, Little Flower, and Blessed Sacrament, Alice’s former school classmates and religious education students and parents, caregivers from Sibley Hospital and the home health therapists, neighbors on Yuma Street, Jon’s work colleagues, the Poor Clares sisters, Msgr. Watkins of St. Ann’s and Fr. Sal and Fr. Joe who administered the sacraments to Alice especially during the past 8 months, many family friends, Alice’s Monday circle group, and Alice’s sisters and brothers and cooperators in Opus Dei.
November 25, 202011/25/2020
Share Obituary:

Share a memory

Add to your memory
Photos/Video
Candle
Mementos

Obituary

Alice Pincus Zischkau
The Mass of Christian Burial for Alice Zischkau will be celebrated at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 5, 2020, at Saint Ann Catholic Church, 4001 Yuma St NW, Washington, DC 20016. The Mass will be webcast at https://stanndc.org/funeral. Viewing will be held just before the funeral Mass starting at 12:00 p.m. in the church. The burial (space limited to family only) will be conducted at All Souls Cemetery, 11401 Brink Road, Germantown, MD 20876. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Yuma Center, 4101 Yuma St NW, Washington, DC, whose mission is to help girls and women become leaders who serve society with professionalism and joy: https://www.yumadc.org/giving Alice died on November 25, 2020, about a month before her 58th birthday. She was born in Coral Gables, Florida, to Richard and Cecilia (Green) Pincus. At that time, Alice had five older siblings, Kathy, Bill, Mary, Loretta, and Teresa. Then her family moved to Hampton, Virginia. From the mid-60’s to the mid-70’s, her parents had six more children, Stephen, Joe, Donald, Tom, Janet, and Mike. Alice spoke often of everything she learned from her parents and siblings in a family life that was marked by everyone having chores and responsibilities in the home, looking after the needs of the others, especially the younger children, family games, working in the family garden plot, attending Mass at their parish, St. Rose of Lima, reading, music, sports, and arts and crafts. Their home was a central meeting spot for the children in the neighborhood along with the little park across the street. Alice attended St. Mary’s Catholic School through eighth grade. Her father taught her and her siblings to play tennis. She and many of her siblings swam on the local swim team, and played tennis and basketball for their schools. In her high school years, she began playing the organ for her parish. She had a great love for religious music, particularly Eucharistic hymns and hymns to the Blessed Mother. She had the daily habit of attending a 6am Mass with her father before school. She graduated from Peninsula Catholic High School as valedictorian in 1981. She attended the University of Dallas, majoring in mathematics. She played on the University of Dallas tennis team. She and her roommate Erin were Dallas’ first Academic All-Americans. Her teammates remembered her motherly instincts. When the tennis team had travel tournaments, Alice would wake up well before sunrise to make cinnamon rolls for everyone using a recipe learned from her mother. In her dorm, she used to make apple pies and other baked goods to share with her floor mates. On the tennis court, “quiet Alice” was relentlessly competitive and methodical with dominating backhand and forehand strokes. She never had professional lessons like other players but her father taught her grit and perseverance on the court such that she rarely lost matches even to top players. Continuing her habit of attending daily Mass by waking up early before classes to attend Mass at the Cistercian monastery, Alice was also known to sneak into the campus chapel at nighttime to play the organ. She also would pray the rosary with her friends Julie and Mary. Her friends remember her integrating some time in personal prayer each day to help guide her study, sports, and friendships. After graduating in 1985, she began her professional career as an actuarial assistant at Wyatt & Company in Washington, DC. Alice met her husband Jon in Washington in 1987 and they used to meet each other daily at the morning Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes in Bethesda. They were married at Our Lady of Lourdes Church on October 22, 1988, during a Marian year declared by St. John Paul II. She and Jon went to Lourdes, France, at the beginning of their honeymoon, and then to Rome where they attended the newlyweds papal audience and personally greeted St. John Paul II. They also had a private audience with Blessed Alvaro del Portillo who was then the prelate bishop of Opus Dei. The prelate told Alice that her path to heaven had a name and that name was “Jon” and he told Jon that his path to heaven had a name and that name was “Alice.” Alice and Jon lived in Bethesda and attended Our Lady of Lourdes for daily Mass and attended Our Lady of Lebanon Church (a Maronite Catholic parish) on Sundays, as Jon is Maronite and had been attending this church and teaching religious education there since his arrival in Washington. Seeing the needs of the parish, Alice began teaching the preschool and kindergarten classes and over the years she helped form hundreds of students to love God with child-like simplicity. She had a knack of combining music and crafts into the lessons to teach the children to pray and how they are called to be saints and show their love for God by serving all people, starting with their own families. She left her employment with Wyatt upon the birth of their first child, Jonathan Jr., in 1989. She immediately put her heart and soul into her work as mother and home educator. Joseph was born next. What she learned in her childhood, she applied to making a bright and cheerful Christian home for her growing family. She and her family attended the beatification of St. Josemaria Escriva on May 17, 1992, while she was expecting their third child, Cecilia. The family moved from Bethesda to Washington DC and she and Jon began homeschooling their children, converting a small den into a classroom. She amassed a formidable collection of excellent books for young readers and taught each child to read at the earliest age possible. Her fourth child, Mary, was born next. In 1997, Johanna was the first of three children who died before birth. Alice’s faith and devotion to Our Lord in the Eucharist and her love for Our Lady helped her and the family through this time of suffering. Alice organized with other homeschooling parents and directed skits and plays for the children, creating the narratives, sets and props, and costumes. These were presented at nursing homes and friends’ homes. Alice and her daughters for many years have created spectacular gingerbread houses for the Christmas novena at Tenley Study Center. In honor of Our Lady, she organized May crownings with other families, and went on pilgrimages with family and friends to local shrines of Mary. She was a founding member of the St. Ann’s mothers’ group, and helped or led girls’ clubs focused on developing character and leadership through service and practice in the culinary arts. Always active with her family, schools, and church, when Matthew was born, Alice was organizing lost and found clothing collections and sales at the Heights School. Alice and the family attended the canonization of St. Josemaria in 2002 in Rome. Two years later, Suzanna was born on the feast of the Holy Guardian Angels. Alice was a model of diligence and creativity in making the home a place where the family could learn to pray, study, work, and serve God and others. She loved planning and celebrating family birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and feast days, establishing wonderful family traditions and borrowing on the experience learned from her own mother. As the children grew older, she continued to help them to be well-rounded academically and culturally by constantly acquiring excellent books, and organizing visits to museums and concerts, arranging piano lessons, encouraging A’capella and choir participation at school, and helping them to participate in sports such as soccer, swimming, and cross country/track and field. She attended as many of her children’s sporting events as possible. She loved gardening, making floral arrangements, and baking. She also enjoyed taking dancing lessons with Jon. Her life of faith continued to grow in a daily commitment to prayer, penance, the Mass, spiritual reading, and attending a monthly recollection, and an annual retreat. Alice was so grateful to God when Cecilia entered the Poor Clares cloistered monastery in Barhamsville, Virginia, on August 15, 2014. A month later, Alice and Jon and the youngest two children were able to attend the beatification of Bishop Alvaro del Portillo in Madrid on September 27, 2014. On the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows in 2017, Alice was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. She and her family invoked Blessed Alvaro del Portillo for her healing. She began treatments which while painful seemed to be effective. She cheerfully offered her suffering to God. Her heart expanded to pray for many people in need. Despite the effects of treatments, she kept up her duties in the home and her friendships and activities outside the home. She helped with the planting and upkeep of flowers at Yuma Center, worked in a family garden plot in a community garden near the home, and continued attending classes for her spiritual formation. Later, she had to undergo additional chemotherapy and radiation treatments, and was sponsored by a Knight of Malta from St. Ann’s parish to go on a pilgrimage to Lourdes in May 2018. Afterwards, she gave talks on her pilgrimage experiences to classes at Oakcrest School and at Yuma Center. Later in 2019, cancer reappeared, but that didn’t stop her from arranging for her and her sisters to attend a retreat together at Longlea Conference Center. She continually led people to opportunities to grow closer to God. By the end of March 2020, she needed more radiation treatments, during which she suffered a stroke rendering her unable to walk. Nevertheless, she maintained a cheerful attitude and constantly thought of the needs of others rather than being absorbed in her own difficulties. Her children came together and provided all the help needed to make it possible for Alice to live at home and receive physical therapy and treatments. Her last months of life on earth were marked by an endearing simplicity, peace, and joy, with a desire to help souls get closer to God. She was able to receive the sacrament of penance at home on a weekly basis and watched a webcasted Mass every day. Once St. Ann’s was open for public Masses, she attended Mass every Sunday and began attending daily Mass as well, being brought up Yuma Street in the wheelchair. When some of her siblings visited her this past summer, she told them she would like to have a big family picnic. Her siblings organized a picnic at Kathy’s farm on August 8, and Alice was able to combine this trip to the farm with what would turn out to be her last visit with her daughter Sister Laetitia at the Poor Clares monastery on August 9-10. On the evening of November 24, following a trip to the emergency room, she received the anointing of the sick for the last time, during which she suddenly awoke, opened her eyes, and became attentive. An all-night vigil ensued, with her family praying at her bedside, accompanied by her siblings, nieces, and nephews in a video webcast. She went to meet her Lord in the morning, the day before Thanksgiving. Alice is survived by her husband, Jon, and her children: Jonathan Jr., Joseph (Sarah), Sister Mary Laetitia, Mary, Matthew, and Suzanna; her eleven brothers and sisters: Kathleen (Todd), William (Maria), Mary (John), Loretta (Ed), Teresa (Thomas), Stephen (Amy), Joseph (Mary), Donald (Lori), Thomas (Stephanie), Janet (Gary), and Michael (Noelle); and her Aunt Dolores (Gregory) Milmoe, her Uncle Michael Green (Mary Jo), and her Aunt Toni Green (the wife of her deceased Uncle Joseph); over 50 first cousins; and many great nieces and nephews. She loved and prayed for her family and friends very much and we pray that she now enjoys eternal joy and peace with her Heavenly Father, and will continue to pray for all of us. Alice and Jon and their children extend a heartfelt thank you for the countless generous prayers, sacrifices, and material helps provided by Alice’s and Jon’s brothers and sisters, cousins, nieces and nephews, Oakcrest faculty, staff, parents, and students, Heights faculty, staff, parents, and students, parishioners from Our Lady of Lebanon, St. Ann, Little Flower, and Blessed Sacrament, Alice’s former school classmates and religious education students and parents, caregivers from Sibley Hospital and the home health therapists, neighbors on Yuma Street, Jon’s work colleagues, the Poor Clares sisters, Msgr. Watkins of St. Ann’s and Fr. Sal and Fr. Joe who administered the sacraments to Alice especially during the past 8 months, many family friends, Alice’s Monday circle group, and Alice’s sisters and brothers and cooperators in Opus Dei.

To plant a tree in memory of Alice Pincus Zischkau, please visit our Tribute Store.

Events

Dec
05
Visitation
Saturday, December 05 2020
12:00 PM - 12:30 PM
St. Ann's Catholic Church
4001 Yuma St
Washington, DC 20016
Get Directions
View MapTextEmail
Dec
05
Memorial Service
Saturday, December 05 2020
12:30 PM - 01:30 PM
St. Ann's Catholic Church
4001 Yuma St
Washington, DC 20016
Get Directions
View MapTextEmail
Final Resting Place
All Souls Cemetery
11401 Brink Rd
Germantown, MD 20876
Get Directions
View MapTextEmail