Lorraine Lucie Goebel

LORRAINE LUCIE GOEBEL    (Nee PELLISSON)

 

 

BORN:           June 21, 1923                                             San Francisco, California

 

PARENTS:    Married March 15, 1904                             San Francisco, California

 

                        FATHER:     Jean Dye Pellisson

                        BORN:         October 12,1871

                                             Chaillol Pres De Gap

                                             Hautes Alpes, France

                        DIED:           November 1949

                                             San Francisco, California

                        PARENTS:  Jean Dye Pellisson        Born in: Hautes Alpes, France

                                             Madeline Eyraud                         Hautes Alpes, France

 

                        MOTHER:   Louise Marie Vialard

                        BORN:         March 4, 1881

                                             Decazeville, Aveyron, France

                        DIED:           July 22, 1955

 

                        PARENTS:  Ernest Vialard               Born in: Aveyron, France

                                             Lucie Barthes                              Aveyron, France

 

SISTERS:       Madeline Pellisson Tarantino

                        BORN:         June 12, 1905                Born in: San Francisco, Calif.

                        MARRIED:  Joseph C. Tarantino (Died Mar.16, 1981)

                                             January 18, 1930

                        DIED:           December 17, 1994

                        CHILDREN: Carol Novelli      born  October 1936

                                              Joan Kobely        born  September 1938

 

                        Jeanette Pellisson

                        BORN:          January 27,1911           Born in San Francisco, Calif.

                        DIED:           March 3, 1930  

 

Eulogy for Mimi

May 13, 2003

Dick Goebel

 

We especially appreciate our concelebrating clergy: Monsignor Gaffe, pastor of St. Eugene’s, Rev Sauer of the Society of Jesus and president of St Ignatius High school in SF, and Fr McCormick, pastor of St Charles Church in San Carlos.   All long-time friends of Mom and our family.  You three have literally made her day.

 

My name is Dick, I’m the number 2 out of 6  children.   …….. and ummm……….My mom wanted you all to know that I never did anything wrong and she loved me most.

 

My mom is known by Mom, Mimi, Lorraine, Lori or Lory or Lorrie or Lorie depending on how you spell it..  I’ll use Mimi most of the time and we’ll all know whom I’m talking about.    With dad’s help, Mimi brought six children into this world: Robert, Richard and Raymond came first.  The fourth was going to be Race, but someone told her to get off the first initial R thing.  However, #4 Tom does a lot of racing anyway and is our triathelete man. .  Mimi didn’t think she was balancing the world population correctly so she kept going and had Nancy. You can talk to Nancy whenever you like but you have to get past five brothers first.  Steve came along,  and mom said, OK,  I have my team..

 

So six kids, ….. she actually did pretty well with all of us… we were all model children…. Except for Bob … but he was breaking new ground and getting in trouble for it occasionally.  I , of course, learned from his mistakes and was a perfect child.  The six of us kept Mom busy and vibrant  and made sure she was never bored.

 

So, with Dad, she raised us all in a beautiful environment.  And over the years as her circle of friends and her extended family grew, she taught us, in her totally unpretentious way, how important people are in one’s life.  We are a large family, and we are a close family.  And we have Mimi and Papa to thank for this.   With almost uncountable grand children and great-grandchildren, Mimi was an extremely busy person, attending zillions of sporting events, birthdays, graduations and other special events.  We are a large family and we gather frequently, we vacation together, we play together, and we help each other in times of need.  Mimi and Papa created this bond and we will continue with it.

 

Mimi formed deep and lasting relationships.  She genuinely cared about all the people she knew, and she treasured her friendships.  I mean really, really treasured her friendships. Some of these friendships have endured for decades and decades with incredible bonds. 

 

Mimi often used the term “life-long friend”, and here in this church are gathered her life-long friends, even her relatively new life-long friends.   Mimi was part of remarkable and wonderful  groups of people who have supported each other, worked together, played together, raised families together. You are these groups and you are wonderful people. Mimi loved people and she loved lots and lots of them.  And she always saw the best in people and cherished people for their goodness.  She never spoke badly about anyone, never,      never       ever.                  except for Rob on Survivor,….she really didn’t care for him.           

 

Mimi wasn’t an intense crusader.  Her involvements were simple.  She just wanted to help make things work and at this, she was very, very good.  And my goodness  her endurance was incredible.  If she was involved, she would be there until the very end.  As many of you know, Mimi would be the last one, cleaning up stuff that sure looked clean to me, organizing stuff that appeared to already be fully organized.    I’d say, “Mom, I’ve got to go to bed now, I’m over 50 years old” 

 

Mimi loved people more than anything.  She has a house full of STUFF, sure… LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of STUFF……..  OK….. She’s never thrown out anything in her life….but she wasn’t  into possessions for any reason other than how they helped support the huge family and groups of friends around her.  She was a most unpretentious person and her possessions are stories of her family and friends.

 

Mimi, the Energizer bunny was an incredible homemaker.  Everything is orderly, everything is organized, everything is used and dynamic and lived in and comfortable.  And she made it look so easy.  One simply gets up at 6:30 in the morning, start organizing, and  keep at it until about 11:00 at night.    No problem.

 

Mimi taught us geometry:

  ---all piles of books and magazines are to be stacked parallel to the edge of the table upon which they sit. For round tables, parallel to the walls of the room in which the table sits. 

---All chairs perpendicular the their table.

---All stacks must be created carefully with edges aligned vertically. .

 

Dates, times, events, relationships.  She was a walking library of information on just about anything you needed to know so you wouldn’t appear stupid.   ?Need to know who the King of France was in 1814:  Louis the 18^th, just ask Mimi.  I blank on names frequently,  Mom dropped me once and never told anyone.  So let’s say  I’m at a funeral or something and I ask mom, “Who’s that over there?  The lady in the red dress.  I know her.”  Mimi would say, “That’s Mary, she’s married to Pete, they have 3 children: Matthew, Mark and Luke, their birthdays are in April, May and June.  Matt’s getting married in July, Mark’s graduating from Chico in August. He went to school with John and they played soccer together. Mark and John dated the same girl back in….  “whoa!, MOM.

 

Mimi often didn’t think it was necessary to end sentences, and since she was the Queen of tangential thinking, she often could have dozens of open thoughts cooking in any conversation.  I often found it very confusing, but Mimi seemed to know exactly what she was talking and talking and talking about.  I calculate she has left over a couple hundred thousand sentences unfinished just in the last couple of years that I’m still working on.

 

In the last several years, Mimi developed a habit of punctuating the end of every sentence in a little tiny laugh.  A bit odd maybe … until you realized that she found pleasure in every little thing.  She always said it didn’t take much to please her.  Waking up in the morning and finding that the avocado had ripened would make her day.  That’s because Mimi lived her life fully and cherished everybody and everything in it.

  

To my family I want to say that our sadness is profound and we will miss Mimi an awful lot, but Mimi has been preparing us to go on without her for several years now.  And as matriarch of our large family, she spent a lifetime showing us what love and mutual support can do.   Mimi has done her job and she did it incredibly well, and for this we are very thankful. 

 

Thank you to everyone for being here to celebrate these last pages in the life of Lorraine Goebel.