Verna Catherine Idecker Wildhaber

Beloved wife of the late Floyd M. Wildhaber; loving mother of Susan (James) Bennett, Nancy (Lynn) Wellman, Floyd T. (Lisa) Wildhaber, Mary (Ken) Sanders, Maureen (Mark) Lauer, Peter (Donna) Wildhaber, Patricia (Dennis) Lewis, Bernadette (Joseph) Baer, Jacqueline (Jerry) LeBeau, Margaret (Vince) Flavin, and Francis Wildhaber; dear grandmother of 33, great grandmother of 33, cousin, aunt, and friend to many.

SERVICES: Visitation 4-8pm Tuesday, February 14, 2017 at HOFFMEISTER COLONIAL MORTUARY, 6464 Chippewa at Watson. Visitation will also take place Wednesday from 10am until time of Mass of Christian Burial at 11am at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church, corner of Pernod and Sulphur. Interment at Resurrection Cemetery.

Memorial contributions suggested to Our Lady’s Inn https://www.ourladysinn.org/donate-now . Our Lady's Inn provides a loving home and an array of services supporting pregnant women and their children suffering with homelessness.

Condolences may be offered at www.hoffmeistercolonial.com

Eulogy:

Hi,

This is my friend and sister Bernadette, and I am Jackie. In case you were not aware, we are number 8 and 9 of the "Wildee Tribe” and we have quite the tribe as Verna C. use to say. Our mom was the most incredible human being; she knew God’s voice and she worked at the art of love and kindness. When I was younger my mom would play a game with our comings and goings. The rules were simple, we would take turns saying we loved each other in measures greater than our own size. For example…she might say, “ I love you as much as the Mississippi is muddy.” Then I would might say, “Well I love you as much as the ocean holds water.” Do you get it? We took turns trying to out do the other until someone would say say, I love you more than infinity. The truth is, no-one beyond God himself could outmatch her love.

Mom taught me so much with this game, it helped me to comprehend a Mom’s love as well as God’s love. It revealed the importance of spending time together and laughing about the goofy things that we came up in the spur of the moment. It stirred my imagination and creativity. My mom was a genius at making mundane things fascinating and fun. But in our life with Mom, all things circled back to one thing, great love for all.

Trying to describe what our mom meant to us is so complicated. Trying to wrap my brain around all the feelings connected to the one I called mom, it’s far too great to articulate. But I will try.

Her start here on earth began on January 18th, 1924. She was the second child of Julius and Edna Idecker, the second child and their first girl. Her brothers were Newton and Edgar and then finally after 10 years of prayer God gave her a sister, Betty Lou Pauline Matilda as she would say. They played and they worked hard on their family farm. She and her mom sang in the church choir all her young adult life. When she was about 15 she became the primary farmhand because her sister was only 5 and her brothers went to serve in WWII. Barely twenty, she began work as an artist at Rembrandt studio in downtown St. Louis. She had a great love for music, art, and dance. Verna met Floyd Martin at Casa Loma Ballroom, the historic St. Louis landmark.

My parents joined faith and married in 1953, and then raised 11 children in a small home not too far from here. We all cut our teeth on the pews of this church, and I don’t believe they even sent us a bill. Don’t ask about the races we had crawling under the pews during choir practice.

Mom worked with all of her heart to make sure our hearts stayed tender towards God and full of faith. She was a bridge builder. That legacy will live on in each of her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, friends and family. God is even yet answering some of Momma’s prayers because He is not limited to time or space. We are each His beloved, and he longs to comfort us.

It is amazing to think Verna C was cleared for passage to heaven this past Saturday. Now she is truly free.. She is with my dad, Floyd Martin, her momma Edna, her dad Julius, her dear sister and brother, and she is even reunited with her precious Great Grandson Otto, all running amuck in heaven I am sure.

Mom’s investment was always love, so to close I’ll share a favorite quote of my mom’s from Abraham Lincoln…

“All that I am, or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother,”

I couldn’t agree more.