Helen J.
Rewolinski
Rewolinski, Helen J.
(nee Raszkiewicz) Departed peacefully April 5, 2019, age 95 years. Beloved wife of the late Edmund A. Rewolinski, and loving mother of Marie (Jerome) Lynch, Joseph (Cynthia), Judith Bartlett, the late Jeanne (Dennis) Thiel, Francis (Donna), Stanley, Elaine Rewolinski and Monica (the late Brian) Knusta. Dear sister of Rev. Joseph Rasky, S.M. and Lucille Diges. Loving grandmother of 13 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. Further survived by sister-in-laws Evelyn Raszkiewicz and Betty Rasky, nieces, nephews, other relatives and good friends. Preceded in death by brothers Stanley, Edward, Leonard, Aloysius, Richard, and sisters Jennie Herr and Claire Race.
Helen met the love of her life, Edmund, at a church dinner at St. John Kanty and they celebrated 64 years of marriage in 2010. She was a graduate of Mercy High School, and earned a bachelor’s degree from Alverno College, where she also worked as a library assistant. Reading, gardening, travel, visiting with family and friends, watching EWTN, and praying the rosary filled her life with joy.
Visitation will be held Friday, April 12 at HERITAGE FUNERAL HOME, 3801 S. Howell Ave, from 4-7 PM, with a vigil service and rosary at 6:30 PM. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Saturday, April 13 at 10 AM at BLESSED SACRAMENT, 3100 S. 41st St., with a final visitation in Church at 9 AM preceding the Mass; graveside service to follow at St. Adalbert’s Cemetery. Memorials appreciated to the SOCIETY OF MARY (MARIANISTS), and the ETERNAL WORD TELEVISION NETWORK.
“GOD BLESS YOU AND KEEP YOU SAFE ALWAYS”
She was the sweetest lady I’ve ever know She was always smiling and never complained She will be missed greatly
Dear Rewolinski Family:
With my own Mother’s passing last summer I know how deep the sorrow can be. Mrs. Rewolinski was a positive influence in my life from first grade at St. Veronica and recently when she included me in the Prayer Network. I am so grateful she was in my life. I know she will be so missed.
Mary McCormick (Daughter of Lee and Harriet Goodman)
The eulogy for Helen:
When we celebrate a Mass of Christian burial we look not only to the life our loved one lived – but also to the life to come.
Helen Julia was born to Mary and Stanley Raszkiewicz on May 17, 1923, and she chose Bernadette for her confirmation name. St. Bernadette, the young girl who saw the Blessed Virgin Mary appear in a cave near Lourdes, and who despite suffering from chronic health problems, was guided only by blind faith in things she did not understand.
Mom was a devoted wife, a loving mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, a sister, a best friend, and most of all, a prayer warrior. Her deep faith led her to pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks.
At St. Veronica Parish, where Mom and Dad were members for over 60 years, she taught CCD classes, helped with parish missions, and was the night shift captain for the prayer network. If you ever visited Mom for dinner, you most likely were recruited, at one time or another, to answer the phone when the prayer network was calling in and write down the prayer request. And every night at bedtime, Mom would take those prayer requests and add them to her litany of nightly prayers. I would read the prayers from the prayer cards of Padre Pio, St. Odelia, St. Anthony, and Our Lady of Lourdes and when we were finished with those prayers, she listened to a decade of the rosary. Mom had always prayed the rosary, but it was after Dad’s death in 2010, the Rosary became her passion. She watched the daily Mass on EWTN, prayed the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and the rosary with Mother Angelica.
Mom also prayed for the people in her life who were the hands and feet of Jesus, and she valued the counsel of those who helped her walk with the Lord. In her early years it was the nuns at Mercy High School who instructed her, and in her working years she was surrounded by the sisters at Alverno College, Sr. Mary Ann, Sr. Crescentine, Sr. Andre, Sr. Mary Nimmer. She admired them for their knowledge and their faith in Jesus. Mom especially enjoyed the visits from her brother, Fr. Joseph Rasky, a Marianist priest. When he came to visit, he would say the Mass and she would receive holy communion daily. The Mass was very important to her and she sent many prayer intentions and Mass requests to a variety of churches and religious orders. The last Mass request she made was to Holy Hill for a family member with a challenging health problem.
Mom was so grateful for all the blessings of her life, and she made sure that kindnesses were remembered with Thank You notes. When she could no longer see or hold a pen, she would ask one of us to find a blank card and write down her words of thanks, which almost always included the phrase, “God bless you and keep you safe always.”
I always packed her old brown wooden rosary in her purse for hospital stays, and it was that same rosary she was reaching for on her last days.
It was on the fifth day in the hospital, when Mom fell into the deep sleep that she never awoke from, and her final words were “I want my rosary.”
Four days later at 11 a.m. she took her final breath, the Mass had just begun on EWTN.
When I returned home from the hospital on April 5th, an envelope from Holy Hill had arrived in the mail with the prayer book “Words of Comfort for Every Day.” The book opened to a ribbon placed on April 5th with the scripture quotation from Thessalonians: FOR THIS IS THE WILL OF GOD, YOUR SANCTIFICATION.
Pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks.