Name: Fountainhead Funeral Home & Memorial Park
Address: Palm Bay, FL

Remarks made on Wednesday, April 10, 2013 at the Visitation for Maria Smith at the Fountainhead Funeral Home in Palm Bay, Florida; 

One line that resonates for me in the poem [I Thank Thee, God, That I Have Lived] is "Dawn breaking after dreary hours of pain." My mother used to be most uncomfortable in the night hours in the last days of her life.  In the daytime, she was peaceful.  There are many things I can say about Mom. She was a wonderful mother, a devoted wife, a good friend, a hard worker, a great cook, a not-so-great housekeeper. She could not be good at everything. She was a person who was stoic. I never heard her complain, say "Why me?" or "Why did this have to happen to me?" Several times she said to me, "I'm sorry to cause you so much trouble." There were times I might have gotten annoyed or frustrated. But I never thought that Mom was any trouble. I think we have come 180 degrees in our relationship. When I was a little girl I was sickly, and Mom took care of me tirelessly. And in the last years of her life, with Ricky and Sandra, I took care of her.
I would like to share a memory that reveals one of her virtues. We were on a pilgrimage tour of Europe, visiting Lisbon, Fatima, Madrid, Zaragoza, Lourdes and Paris. In Zaragoza, we had a free afternoon and with some other people in the group, we went shopping at a major department store, El Corte Ingles. Before we went in, we decided as a group that we should meet in front of the store at 5:30 PM to walk back to the hotel. The store was in walking distance to the hotel and we needed to get back there at 6 PM to go meet with the main group fo dinner. So the group went into the store and we went our separate ways to shop.  At about 5:15 or 5:20, Mom and I came out of the store. There were several people in our shopping group already waiting. At 5:30, most of the people were there except for a few. By 5:35, everyone was there except for one lady who was a Panamanian. She was a casual acquaintance of Mom's and Mom knew that she spoke Spanish fluently. 5:40 came and went, and no lady. 5:45 came, and still no lady. At that time, Mom spoke up: "Let's go back to the hotel. I know that lady. She is smart. She will find her way back to the hotel." Mom said that knowing that the lady spoke Spanish. The people in our shopping group agreed with Mom and we started to walk back to the hotel. Not more than 30 seconds, maybe even less than that, the lady came running after us. "You were going to leave without me?" she said.  When she caught up with us, we continued to walk to the hotel.  I was walking along side a lady of Irish heritage. She turned to me and said "Your mother is a very wise woman." I felt very proud of Mom at that moment.  And I cherish the memory of that moment because it allowed me to see her through another person's eyes. And through the years, in many difficult situations she went through, Mom showed that she was indeed a very wise woman. In conclusion, I would like to repeat what I said to Mom a few days before she died. I told her "You are the best mother a child could ever have." Thank you, Mommy, for sharing your life with us.

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Fountainhead Funeral Home & Memorial Park

Maria Smith

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Maria Smith

21 June, 1922 – 6 April, 2013

Fountainhead Funeral Home & Memorial Park

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