Martha Dittmeier's Funeral |
| Martha Dittmeier, wife of Charles C. Dittmeier and mother of Charles, Dennis, Ann, Jane, Raymond, Paul, Mary, and Martha, died on Holy Thursday, 13 April 2006. Because of the Holy Week celebrations and to allow time for Charlie to arrive from Cambodia, the funeral was scheduled for Tuesday, 18 April. |
On Saturday morning there was time for getting groceries and making plans for the funeral itself. (L-R: Olivia, Mary Dittmeier Davis, Mark Reed, and Mike Davis) |
The Reed family from Cincinnati and I were both staying with the Davises so there were lots of cousins together |
In the evening everyone gathered at our brother Paul's house for supper |
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In the afternoon we had an Easter egg hunt for the younger grandchildren in the backyard of my sister Mary's house.
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 Although mother died on Thursday of last week, I didn't see her body until we had the visitation at the funeral home today from 1:30 to 8:0 PM. Many, many people made the trip to Crestwood to be with us. This picture was taken during the time for the family, before all our friends and neighbors came. |
 Because we have so many small grandchildren in the family, we set up a place in the back of the room for the children to watch a video made for Mom and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary in 1993. It turned out to be quite popular with many of the visitors, too. |
 The funeral was at 10:00 AM at St. Aloysius Parish in Pewee Valley, Kentucky, and immediately afterwards the burial was in the parish cemetery |
 After the burial, family and friends were invited back to the parish where there Bereavement Committee provided a meal and a chance for widespread friends and relatives to talk |
 Later in the afternoon, the brothers and sisters and their families gathered at Paul's house where the kids used the pool to work off the tension of the week... |
 ...while the older family members watched and talked of the past and future |
 At the end of the day, I rode by the cemetery and the graved was closed. Mother is buried next to our father Charlie. |
I was staying with Mary and Mike Davis and their children. Today was Mike's birthday and his children and a visiting family from North Carolina gathered to sing Happy Birthday while Mary took pictures. |
Mike opening his birthday gifts |
After the festivities mom helped with some last-minute homework for the next day |
Ms. Fionna Terry (right) is the author of Condemned to Repeat? The Paradox of Humanitarian Action. Working with Medecins sans Frontieres, she lived in Rwanda and other troubled areas of the world and experienced first hand the effects of foreign aid in conflict situations. She wrote a book about the pros and cons of foreign aid and how it always becomes part of the problem. She was in Louisville this week and spoke to a group at Highland Presbyterian Church. The next day she appeared on National Public Radio. |
| This morning I left Louisville to return to Cambodia via Chicago, Tokyo, and Bangkok. |
Go to Charlie Dittmeier's home page
In the evening we had supper at Mary's house. The neighbors had brought a huge amount of food to the houses of the various brothers and sisters because they knew all the family was coming in for Mom's funeral.