Mom told me that whenever a visitor left she said a prayer for them. At one time I knew the passage in the Bible where the prayer is presented. Then I forgot where it was in the Bible and could only remember parts of what the prayer included. I thought I had it on my computer but I couldn’t find it. Just today I spotted it in the Magnificat for July 20, 2002. Here is her prayer:
“May the Lord bless you and keep you! May the Lord let His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! May the Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace! Amen. “ (Num 6: 24-26)
So with this addition, here is my list so far. If any of you can add to it I will appreciate that greatly. I think we should add any pithy sayings from in-law parents and George.
“Words of Wisdom” from Mom or Pop Pecar, In-Law Parents and George
1. “We should pray as if everything depended on God, work as if everything depended on ourselves”. (Mom Pecar)
2. “It is better to light one candle than curse the darkness”. (Mom Pecar) (I think Mom got that one from the Christopher Movement – which was popular in her days.)
3. “Right is right if no one is right, and wrong is wrong if everyone is wrong.” (While Mom Pecar always used to say this, I found the thought in a book by Fulton J. Sheen)
4. “The decent one gives in first!” (Mom Pecar) (Submitted by Ethel)
5. Pop Pecar’s saying: “You must do what is right not out of fear of being caught and punished, but so that you can respect yourselves”. Bishop sheen said this a little different. Sheen said that righteous men live by the principle that “If I were dishonest, I could not live with myself”.
6. Two “wrongs” don’t make a “right”. (Mom Pecar)
7. We must love sinners, but we must also hate and condemn sin. (Mom Pecar)
8. Quote from George C. Pecar said to someone enduring a trial: “Your reward will be great in Heaven”.
9. “Too soon we get old, too late we get smart”. (Pop Pecar)
10. Whenever we complained of some hardship, Mom Pecar used to simply say, “Offer it up”.
11. Michelle Rene (Pecar) Davis recalls that Mom Pecar used to say to her students “Over” when giving piano lesson. Probably good advice to anyone trying to learn something through practice.
Adding to Chelle’s remembrance, Mary (Pecar) Wilson sent the following:
I have a lot of memories of Grandma and Grandpa Pecar. I don’t have
many ‘sayings’ that come to mind, but lots of wonderful memories! I will think on the things that I remember and if any sayings come to mind, I will pass them on.
I echo the ‘over’ - but remember it more as ‘practice’ or ‘try again’. I remember always feeling that Grandma was proud of me when I played for her... looking back, she was able to turn a deaf ear when we hit the wrong note or stumbled through a song. She was an encourager - not a discourager. If we did our best, she knew it and praised us accordingly. What a legacy of love!
Good night,
Mary
12. Poem from Mary Wilson 11-9-08 written about her deceased brothers Johnny and Eddie. She wrote the poem when Eddie died in 1977.
You can never love too much,
Praise too often
or forgive too many times...
For today's companions, may be tomorrow's memories.
13. My dad always used to say to us “If a job is great or small, do it well or not at all”. (Submitted by Rose [Wempe] Pecar
14. When you have a problem and don't know what to do, Mom Pecar used to say “Pray to the Holy Ghost” (Submitted by Rose [Wempe] Pecar
The next two quotes Mom used to invoke when we complained about the “shortcomings” of other people or when we complained about the possible evil motives of others.
15. “Remember, when you point your finger at someone, your thumb is pointing back at you.” Nancy Ann (Handy) Pecar
16. “Always think the best (of others).” Joseph Albert Pecar
A Typical Grandma Day
By Uncle Joe Albert Pecar
I may have related before that my mother was the first to rise and she would go down to the basement, shake the coal ashes down, remove them with a shovel, and shovel new coal from our bin into the furnace to continue heating our home and light the gas hot water heater. Following that she would make our breakfasts and pack our lunches.
In that era, she did all our laundry at a two-tub basin in our the basement. Believe it or not, she hand washed our clothes using a “scrub board” in one of the basins. She washed clothes in one tub, and rinsed them out in the other and then partially dried the clothes using a hand-cranked ringer which set on the barrier between the two tubs.
When the weather was close to or less than freezing, (which it typ
ically was from November to at least March), she would hang the ringed-out clothes on clothes lines in our basement to finish drying. Clothes that required ironing she would do at an ironing board set up beside the tubs.
I can recall that often after a full day of teaching piano, followed by fixing dinner and cleaning the kitchen, that she would end up back in the basement ironing. Her teaching was sometimes the only source of income for our family so she had to be very clever in planning inexpensive meals. Often there could be no meat at our dinners.
Your grandmother or great grandmother literally worked around the clock. And yet, amazingly she somehow she found time and energy to walk to the 7:00 Mass. My Altar Boy serving was the occasion where I observed her exercising her commitment to attend Mass and receive the Eucharist on a daily basis. I remember attending the priest in the distribution of Communion and holding the paten under her chin as the priest placed the Host on her tongue (that was the way it was done in those days).
Her countenance during her acts of worship and devotion was striking and manifested to me as an almost palpable “saintliness”.
I don’t claim that my understanding of God and religion was very developed or adult-like at all at that time. I only know that in spite of her very hard life and the devotion of most of her time and efforts to our family, that she exuded an image of peace and willing acceptance of the many hardships in her life.
In the summertime, after nightfall and a long day of physical work, she would take some time to sit on our front porch, where again her glow of saintly peace and perhaps silent contemplation would be apparent.
It was surely my mother’s devoutness that led me to first realize the tremendous blessings and rewards that starting one’s day with a Mass – which always includes two Biblical readings, and the reception of Holy Communion. My experience has led me to conclude that truly there can be no better way to start one’s day!
