Gertrude Gertrude Martha Gentile, 94, (outside of her four daughters, baby sister, countless grandchildren and great grandchildren) truly wasn’t survived by many. As she often liked to remind her family, “everybody I know is dead.” She spoke of death like you would a life long friend who exists only to tease you, someone to be annoyed by yet fully embraced as a full part of you. Someone who you know will one day fulfill a promise only the two of you remember making.
She outlived three husbands (something she was secretly amused by), two best friends (both named Lois), and almost her entire high school class, and she did so while taking life by the horns – living, not just existing.
While she was funny, stubborn and sometimes crass, (things she earned the right to be as a woman who lived to be 94), she was also beautiful, sharp as a whip, and God fearing. She loved cardinals, (the baseball team and the birds), the colors blue and purple, chocolate, the smell of lavender.
She loved a glass of scotch on the rocks, a well made Manhattan, spam, trivia games and doing crossword puzzles with her daughters. She loved Perry Mason reruns, crocheting baby blankets and clothes. She loved the feeling of the sun on her face, the way it looked peeking through the leaves of the trees in the backyard of the home she took her final breaths in. She loved her family, her church, and most importantly, she loved herself.
Gertrude lived life with purpose, with love, even when life maybe didn’t deserve those things from her. And when she felt her purpose complete, she went home, where she lived surrounded by a family who cherished her, and walked happily into deaths arms, as you do with an old, familiar friend. A woman who chose when she was done with life, not when life was done with her, is one to be celebrated. So the next time you have a drink, raise your glass to Gertrude. She wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
SERVICES: Visitation will be at Discovery Family Church (699 S Bluff Rd, Collinsville, IL 62234) on Saturday, May 4th from 10:00 – 11:00 AM, with the funeral service beginning at 11:00 AM.
Interment at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery on Monday, May 6th at 9:45 AM. Family and friends are asked to gather at the Sylvan Springs Lot on Sheridan Rd. at 9:30 AM.
So sorry to hear about the passing my dear aunt Trudy. She was my last aunt and dearly beloved wife of my uncle Lou. I always looked forward to her Christmas letters. My condolences to all her family as I’m know she’ll be missed.