On Wednesday, October 6, 2021, Mildred Marie Fitzpatrick, of Rockville, MD passed away peacefully, almost reaching her one hundredth birthday. Wife of the late Joseph H. Fitzpatrick, Jr., her beloved husband of 59 years; mother of James (Barbara), Michael (Victoria), Robert (Lynn), Terence (Carol) and Thomas (Suzanne) Fitzpatrick, Maureen Conrad (Mark, deceased) and Kathleen Metzger (Bill); sister of the late Jeanette Maier and the late Eleanor Mimick. Survived by fourteen grandchildren and sixteen great-grandchildren and many other relatives. After growing up on a farm in Nebraska, Millie enlisted and served as a Chief Yeoman in the United States Naval Reserve, as part of the WAVES unit (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service) during World War II, under Chief of Naval Operations in Washington, DC. She was awarded several medals and an Honorable Discharge with “Exemplary” efficiency rating after the war. After raising a family of seven children, Millie embarked on 26-year career as a secretary to the administration at St. John’s College High School in Washington, D.C., where she was awarded that institution’s most prestigious award, “The President’s Medal” for distinguished service. Visitation will be at 10:30 am, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial, at 11:30 am, at St. Jane Frances de Chantal Church, 9601 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda, MD 20814 on Saturday, October 16. Entombment will be at Gate of Heaven Cemetery Mausoleum in Silver Spring, MD at 1:30 pm. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to St. Jude Children Research Hospital; Holy Name Catholic Church of Omaha, Nebraska; and St. Jane Frances de Chantal Catholic Church of Bethesda, MD. Eulogy from Tj Fitzpatrick: Good morning, everyone. Welcome, Family. Welcome, Friends. Welcome members of the DeChantal community, especially, Fr Giese. Words will not adequately convey the importance of your presence in our mother’s life, during this past decade, and in those past four months of hospice care, when it truly mattered the most to Mom and to our entire family. Thanks in advance to Dr. Grisi and Chuck Hoag for their musical support. And special thanks to all of Mom’s home health aides, whom she came to regard as personal friends, especially Esther, Brigitte, Millicent, Keke, Bemnet, Leticia, Alice, and recent ones, such as Jenipher, Emma, Asiy, Ernestina and Sylvia, who supported Mom over the past couple years. Trust us, Mom knew when the Good Lord decided it was her time, this church is where she wanted to be; there is no other place on God’s earth from where Mom would rather pass into the next life. Eulogies are usually not best served by statistics - we are here to account or measure, in some sense, but we mostly dwell on the character of the individual. Yet, there is always an exception to every rule, and we have one here today: Mildred Marie Maier, please, Millie Fitzpatrick, who has been attending Mass at this very church, here in the “heart of Bethesda”….For Fifty Seven years. That’s over 3,000 masses, “Attention must be paid!” Through seven decades, through ten Presidents of the United States of America, through five Holy Fathers (including Pope John Paul II, whom she met in Rome), through five Monsignors of this very parish, whose names of Caufield, Christopher, Madigan, Scanlon, and Essex appear posthumously on various buildings on this campus. Through and past all of these prominent people, Millie has been a loyal and faithful parishioner, and Millie will continue to be an inspiration. Before this church was reconfigured, Millie celebrated the marriage ceremonies of both of her daughters, Maureen, and Kathleen, as well as one of her sons, Terry; Millie rejoiced over the baptism of her grandson, Andrew, and Millie mourned the passing of her husband, Joseph, after 59 years of marriage, all right over there; and as presently configured, Millie witnessed the marriage of her granddaughter, Darcy, here at this very pulpit by Fr Giese. Buildings and configurations may change, yet the character of Millie Fitzpatrick endures, and it sustains all of us. How did Millie do it? How could anyone have that much staying power, that much Life? What was the secret?! DRIVE. That’s the concise answer. And Millie’s deep, unabated FAITH was the power source. More than anything else, Drive. It’s a relentless ambition; a propulsion; a constant state of forward motion. Overcoming all obstacles in one’s path, but not with recklessness; it suggests purpose, determination, resolve. Any one of these descriptors apply to our mother of seven, grandmother of fourteen, great-grandmother of sixteen, sister of two, sister-in-law of four, aunt of seven, daughter and wife: Millie Fitzpatrick, a woman with unparalleled… Drive, as in leaving Yankton, South Dakota, in 1943, when Millie was just barely an adult, heading to the East Coast, when there really was such a place, to Washington DC, to a stint in the Navy, and more about that sojourn in a moment…Millie’s yearning led to her outgrowing the simple joy and innocence as the young “Swede”, as she was affectionately called, with her flowing blonde hair, a young girl who could run faster than all the boys in playground races; Millie shifted to a weightier purpose, a higher calling, a loftier goal, one that would require considerable.. Drive, as in leaving behind her local status as the Yankton Wallbaum’s “Whitman Sampler Girl” or in pushing hard to be the top student in Mrs. Duhpew’s typing class because Millie had to keep trying her hardest - when Millie heard Eleanor Lothrop clacking away two rows behind her, Millie knew she’d better not let up or they may overtake her, so Millie could not become complacent, because something in her heart was telling her that she still had far to go, to reach a new destination, so Millie had to continue that momentum, that push, that… Drive, not so much as in leaving, but in yearning for something more, an ambition that could not be satisfied by her mother, Clara, and her father, George. After faithfully serving them as both daughter and farm-hand, side-by-side with her older sister, Jen, and younger sister, Eleanor, to eke out a living on a farm in the very middle of America, in the very midst of the Great Depression; Millie realized that she had served her family and the farm faithfully, and now it was time to serve her country with that same… Drive, as in literally boarding a train taking her to Hunter College in the Bronx, one of the US Navy Basic Training entry points for the Naval Barracks in Washington DC, about as far away from a birthplace home and farm in Carroll, Iowa or that later farm in Crofton, Nebraska, as one could imagine, where Millie enlisted, after successfully passing their aptitude test, into the United States Naval Reserve, into a unit commonly referred to as the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). That day, Millie cried tears of confusion, wondering how on earth she would survive on her own so far away from home and from her beloved parents and sisters, yet Millie persisted, thanks to her... Drive, as in working hard, and being trusted with a top security clearance, and in achieving the rank of Chief Yeoman in the US Navy and, after several years of service to our country, which included receiving a Good Conduct Medal, the American Campaign Medal and the Victory Medal of WWII, in her duties in both the Combat Intelligence Division (CID) and Fleet Air Locations of Aviation Plans, Millie received an Honorable Discharge with a rating for Efficiency of “Excellent” when the war ended. Just a couple of months later, Millie met, in a chance encounter at the Lotus Club at 1420 K Street in Washington DC, a Marine Staff Sgt gunner, named Joseph, please, Joe, who, with not much more to his name than a quick wit, an infectious smile, a bit o’ the blarney but, who most importantly, possessed a similar disposition as her, but just needed a little pushing, just a little more... Drive, and so they married, and immediately demonstrated the perseverance and patience needed for the two young veterans to raise a family of seven children, while Joe worked two, and occasionally, three separate jobs, and Millie sacrificed a GI-Bill sponsored college education, to raise and support Jimmy, Michael, Bob, Terry, Maureen, Kathleen, and myself, all gathered here today, all who have lived extraordinary lives, and all of whom have benefitted from Millie’s constant sense of... Drive, as in between cooking and cleaning and ironing and vacuuming and dusting and wiping and scrubbing and straightening and scouring the house and its occupants, lest any visitor ever have the audacity to notice anything other than an immaculate home; to snatching precious minutes of time with calisthenics on the cold basement floor, Mom realized that she had to keep herself physically fit so that she could maintain that… Drive, as in entering the workforce as soon as she could, as soon as Mom felt confident that every last child was ready to start their own journey, without her there to mother them every day, even though it was, what some may have called a “late start”, at age 46, when many folks are just starting to think about planning for retirement. Millie, instead, was just embarking on her new career, one that would fulfill her, for over 25 years, one that would result in Millie being “the face” not to mention the “heart and soul” of St John’s College High School, where all five sons would graduate, where Joe would serve as President of their Men’s Club, where Millie was awarded The President’s Medal, the school’s highest award, for “serving a generation of students with love, care, patience and attention”; it was a 25-year career spent in service, where their two names still adorn the School Library today; As we look back, we know absolutely that it was a career that would proudly help instill in young students, just as it had in our family, the importance, no actually more than that, the necessity, the imperative, the defining life characteristic of Drive. But let’s take one quick detour. Because there were so many light-hearted and genuinely funny moments along the way; the career rightfully earned Mom some spending income, what she affectionately called “ma’ money”, on her occasional, and we do mean, occasional, shopping flings at Julius Garfinkel; it enabled Mom to spend money for classic novels in literature, which she had always intended to bequeath to her family anyway, all leather-bound, with that unique smell which would give Mom such a “high”, in reality more of a testament to how far her journey had taken her from the old and tattered books she had read at the farm; When we teased Mom about some of her idiosyncrasies (remember the lamb stories with that wooly smell”?) or about her penchant for butter pecan ice cream or Godiva chocolate; well, Mom would simply remind us to “Stop your Bazooin” or “Get the Vacuum if you’ve got so much energy” or her all-time signature phrase, delivered whether Mom was a stay-at-home or a working mother: Don’t Worry about it!” Thinking about that phrase, it underscores one of Mom’s central life thrusts - we were to let her worry about things so we could just focus on doing what we needed to do to bring us success, which would bring Mom so much joy. We’re talking here about one of, if not the most, selfless people all of us have, or ever will, encounter in our lives. Well, Mom, you can finally let go of all of that worry, that anxiety, that concern – you have earned your rest – time now to finally shift into Park and out of... Drive, as in ensuring that Joe would earn his MBA so that, together, they could ensure that all of their children would earn college degrees, and go on to lead fulfilling lives, so that Mom could shift her focus, ever so slightly, to that of a grandparent: GG! pouring out her love for the grandchildren, in baking, a seemingly endless supply of cookies for college and Christmas, and home-made rolls and jelly and sticky buns for Easter, in clapping, her hands loudly, to awaken drowsy, visiting grandchildren out of their slumber, to get their day started, you know, into… Drive, but also, never failing to offer birthday best wishes, no matter that she was 99; and always offering timely tips (“Just remember - It’s only temporary”); and, most importantly, teaching all of them about gratitude for so many blessings and demonstrating for them about strength in standing up for yourself. GG’s final Christmas message to us: “Just be good to everyone….But don’t take any stuff - I never did!” That’s our GG, setting the same example of determination and grit for new generations, all while facing and staring down several dire health issues and operations and procedures. Maybe it was all of those wondrous farm/country germs, protecting her, maybe it was the straight-up adversity of the Great Depression, insulating her, no doubt it was her service during World War II, sustaining her, or perhaps it was simply raising seven children, defining her, as someone who, it seemed, would never succumb. Clearly, it would entail drawing deeply upon those vast reserves of... Drive, because now, nearing the century mark, Millie understood that she was serving as a role model to role models themselves, ensuring she was always healthy enough to attend 10 am Mass here every Sunday, thereby inspiring countless members of both the St Johns community, including President Jeff Mancabelli, whom we thank him for his kind tribute last week, and the DeChantal community, including Gen. Nadja West, who loved swapping stories and comparing notes with Millie about her military service. Today, as we reflect, remember and reminisce, we cry and share those same tears of joy, as Millie did so long ago when she boarded that train in South Dakota; and we wonder how on earth we will finish our own journeys, without Millie as our guide, but we fully understand how we have been so blessed to have her, so we also wear broad smiles, and share genuine laughter and vivid images of all that Mom has taught us. We hold on to those images tightly forever, savoring memories of Mom every time we make peach crisp, strawberry jelly, cucumber salad, applesauce cake, cloverleaf rolls, pickled watermelon rind, sour cream raisin pie, 1234 cake, vegetable beef soup, and yes, even tuna casserole or powdered milk. Or every time we wash sheets and hang them outside on a line to dry for that pure, clean scent of fresh air, or when we darn socks, or fix a button, or pull weeds or plant flowers or trees, especially Colorado Blue Spruces, ahem, or whenever we iron a crisp hemline. Millie has been an exemplar for over half a century, and, for our family, a personal inspiration, a driving force for a full century, from October 31, 1921, to October 6, 2021 - after such a glorious run, it is our turn to let go and share Millie with the folks upstairs, who will both welcome and appreciate her presence. St Peter, no doubt, has a set of time-tested operating procedures, but maybe he should prepare for a few changes. Mom will bring Lysol, Yellow label. And Listerine, Original formula. Sometimes, as far back as the 70s, after a particularly hard day, before flopping on the couch, Mom would declare, “I’m not long for this world.” suggesting the Good Lord would be taking her at any moment. Luckily for us, Millie still had almost half of her life ahead of her. More importantly, the world, and all of its inhabitants who ever knew Millie, whether in Iowa, or Nebraska, or South Dakota, or Arlington, VA or Cheverly, MD or Warson Woods, MO or Bethesda or Rockville, will always love Millie, miss Millie, and wish she could have stayed even longer in this world. Farewell, Millie, Mom, Swede, Grammy, GG, “Oh, you know what your name is, just answer!” and we all say, Forever DeChantal, Forever Millie. Rest In Peace!