Agnes Schmoe

Welcome to this Memorial Meeting for Worship to remember and rejoice in Agnes Schmoe's life. We ill sit together, at first in silence; at times an individual may be moved to speak, offering a memory or a message. All are welcome to do this. This celebration will come to a close when we shake hands with our neighbors.

RantWoman does not know when she first met Agnes Schmoe or how Agnes so deeply and immediately impressed RantWoman. RantWoman thinks it must have been at Annual Session, either in a worship-sharing group or interest group where she first met Agnes. RantWoman only knows that a few weeks ago when she learned that Agnes had passed away, RantWoman immediately knew she would be called to try to attend the memorial held June 25 at Eastgate Church of Christ in Bellevue.

RantWoman apologizes: RantWoman tried to find a link for an online obituary but completely lost patience with the torrents of ads and general electrified muddle spewing out of her search engine. RantWoman is going to settle for correct spelling of Agnes' name and let her readers filter for themselves.

Agnes was tall and gracious and dignified long past when it was easy for her to stand to her full height. Agnes was the daughter-in-law of our founding member Floyd Schmoe who also was tall. RantWoman thinks Agnes' height alone probably helped her hold her own with the Schmoes. In worship the Sunday after Agnes' death was announced a Friend shared a point RantWoman already knew: Agnes' husband of 52 years Ken, was killed by a falling tree while walking in the woods after a snowstorm. RantWoman did not know, until she heard in worship, that Ken died pushing Agnes out of the way of the falling tree.

Agnes was born in Canada but grew up in Seattle. Her mother died when she was three and a brother died while she was in her teens. Agnes went to nursing school in MN. She and Ken worked for a time in New York at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital before returning to the Seattle area, eventually settling near Issaquah and Tiger Mountain.

Agnes was passionate about children, education, cooking, gardening, bees, education, schools, peace. Agnes became a US citizen so that she could vote in school levy elections and maintained lifelong engagement in peace causes and politics including longtime service as a precinct committee officer, protestor at Bangor submarine base, letter-to-the-editor writer.

The memorial bulletin writes:

Agnes never stopped trying to change the world for the better, beginning with herself, and never lost faith that such change was possible. She ...truly liked everyone she ever met.

RantWoman acquired most of this info from the memorial, but first RantWoman was called to show up in full-bore RantWoman to the rescue, RantWoman WILL speak up mode. RantWoman thanks the bus driver for pointing out that her destination, the church with a sanctuary three times as large as the worship room at Eastside Meeting, was right across from the bus stop RantWoman requested. RantWoman is grateful for a worshipper who, seeing RantWoman fog into the packed room a few minutes after the start of the memorial, moved and yielded an easily findable seat in back to RantWoman.

A Friend spoke, with noticeable microphone fortification shortly after RantWoman entered. Then a family member spoke without using the microphone. RantWoman was immediately beset by a neighbor and several nearby voices murmuring things like "what's he saying?" RantWoman decided that she must impose absolute Bereaved Relative forebearance; she also decided she could not just shadow the speaker for her hearing-impaired neighbors. Instead RantWoman concentrated on hearing the bereaved relative.

Then someone else rose to speak, again without the microphone but this time clearly not a relative. At this point, in the middle of the other Friend's message, RantWoman was almost dragged to her feet with words something like "FRIENDS, WE ALL LOVED AGNES and WE WANT TO HEAR all the messages about her life. WILL YOU PLEASE USE THE MICROPHONE AT THE FRONT OF THE ROOM so we all can hear your messages. I cannot see the mike but I can tell it is there and WILL YOU PLEASE USE IT?" RantWoman feels very blessed that Interrupted Friend graciously maintained equanimity, moved to the microphone and set an example followed by almost all of the people giving the remaining messages.

Someone spoke of a visitor expressing concern about a bear known to be in the woods near their home on Tiger Mountain and of Agnes saying "Where else would the bear be?"

Another Friend spoke of Agnes' enthusiasm for his new interest in beekeeping and an offer to give him a beehive. It took two tries on two different nights and between, Agnes sewed a special cloth bag to cover the hive and keep the bees in while the hive was being moved.

RantWoman is especially fond of a peek into the language of another Meeting: one Friend spoke of Agnes complaining about stop lights as if the stop lights were a conspiracy specifically to slow her down. This Friend spoke of how she and Agnes came to make peace with the stop lights over and over in their conversation

Toward the end of worship, a Friend offered a quote about "sometimes we receive blessings that are a little hard to live through." RantWoman grabbed that one for multiple reasons!

Someone else spoke of Agnes' passion for a group called Faith in Action and somewhere shortly worship closed.

RantWoman hopes that by the end of her own memorial at least half as much courage and inspiration is still hovering in the room as was in the sanctuary at Agnes' memorial.

RantWoman also hopes that if someone has to stand up at a RantWoman memorial and make a loud call so everyone in the room can see or hear or participate better that the person gets thanked at least as many times as RantWoman did at the end of Agnes' memorial. And RantWoman still feels the courage infusion.

From the program:

Decide to be peaceful

Render others peaceful.

Be a model of peace.

Irradiate your peace.

Love passionately the peace of our planet.

Do not listen to the warmongers, hate seekers, and power seekers.

Dream always of a peaceful world.

Work always for a peaceful world.

Switch on and keep on in yourself the positive buttons,

those marked by love, serenity, happiness, truth,

kindness, friendliness, understanding and tolerance.

Pray and thank God every day for peace.

Pray for the United Nations and for all peacemakers.

Pray for the leaders of nations

who hold peace of the world in their hands.

Pray God to let our planet at long last become the planet of peace.

and sing in unison with all humanity,

"Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.:

Robert Muller