Helen Marie Scherer Collins
Eulogy
A Legacy of Love
It is extraordinary that so many have come to this gathering in memory of my mother, Helen. Many 90 year olds are long forgotten and only a few family members show up at their funeral service. Why you are all here is a key to understanding who Helen Marie Scherer Collins was. But first I digress.
Nothing about my Mom was ordinary. Her father and mother were adventurers who traveled in a Model T from Missouri to California before there were any major roads. They ended up in Long Beach and started one of the first grocery store chains in Los Angeles. Mom remembered all the stores and long hours when she, an only child, helped her ambitious parents and entertained herself when they were too busy for her. They were wealthy but not particularly happy. Sometimes her Irish temper would get the best of her and she would destroy her rich-girl toys in front of her parents to show her frustration.
Everything changed when the Great Depression came. Grandpa Scherer had invested most of his money in the stock market and lost everything. When mom was sixteen, rich and spoiled, her parents left her to fend for herself on the streets of Los Angeles. But Mom was stubborn, independent, confident, intelligent, and pretty. She entered the pre-med program at Long Beach City College. At the same time she took some modeling jobs on the side and tried to break into the Hollywood scene. She would have breakfast at the Brown Derby with the Marx Brothers, take the ferry to Catalina and date and dance with the stars to the sounds of the big bands, Glenn Miller and Jim and Tommy Dorsey. She survived the 1930s by directing her strong temper into making money any way she could: wing walking on bi-planes, riding roller coasters to attract business, working for the health department, among other things.
Then on a blind date set up by her cousin, she met Art Collins, a handsome guy with wavy, red hair and a nicely tailored green suit. Dad proposed on their fourth date. Six weeks later they were married in the rectory of a Catholic Church in Yuma, Arizona. They couldn’t have a Church wedding because Mom was not Catholic. Shortly after the wedding a local priest gave her instructions in the Catholic faith and then she was baptized. She decided to leave what she called her “heathen” life, the life in the fast lane with the rich and famous, for a life of faith. Now she was a convert and on fire with the faith.
Mom and Dad were married in 1941. Their first daughter, Zoe, was born in 1942. Their second daughter, Joyce, was born in 1943. I arrived in 1944. While dad worked making airplanes for the War, Mom stayed home and raised us in a good, Catholic home. As soon as we started Catholic School in Bellflower, Mom would help the nuns any way she could. In 1952, when Dad’s job took us to Fresno, Mom volunteered at the rectory and at the school. She also ministered any way she could to her neighbors. I remember my mom looking out the kitchen window at a house maid walking home from work and sensing that she didn’t make much money and wouldn’t have enough to feed her family. Seconds later, it seemed, Mom was on the sidewalk offering her some packaged meat from the freezer. Anyone who has seen Mom in action knows how quick and spontaneous she could be in giving someone in need a handout.
In late 1957 or early 1958 my Dad lost his job in Fresno. A few months later he found another one in San Jose and bought a house in Santa Clara. I remember the first time my Mom looked at a map of Santa Clara. She glowed with enthusiasm and flashed her incredible smile when she saw that our home in Santa Clara was only a few blocks from a Carmelite Monastery and not too far from Santa Clara Mission. We moved just before Easter in 1958.
I remember that spring and summer like they were yesterday. I was attending W.A. Wilson Intermediate School next door to the Carmelite Monastery. My sisters were attending Santa Clara High. Mom was not happy that we couldn’t afford to go to Catholic schools, but she had a plan. She would teach catechism in the barn at the Monastery to students from my school and she would encourage my sisters to teach catechism to public school kids. The junior high kids were a rowdy bunch, but they were no match for Mom and her Irish temper. 50 years later, her students would ask folks at the Monastery if Mrs. Collins was still around. They loved and respected her because they knew she could command respect from any class and that she loved them in the midst of her strict ways. Once summer vacation started, Mom had time to get involved at the Monastery. Mother Fidelis quickly tested her mettle when she asked Mom to clean and polish the chapel floor. As usual, Mom was a ball of fire. A few days later, she was taking care of Mother Fidelis’ aging mother and aunt, picking up food donations all over San Jose, driving the nuns to doctor appointments, and answering the phone. Later that summer, I went to a high school seminary to study for the Catholic priesthood. When I returned on holidays, I would walk, nearly run, with my mom to daily Mass at St. Clare’s. Later on we would run errands for the nuns then attend Vespers in the afternoon. That left just enough time to run home to clean the house and make dinner for Dad. Mom was a ball of fire. On some of my vacations I would also hang out with my friend, Bob Hayes, whose mother also helped at the monastery. Bob was interested in joining the seminary. Mom and I encouraged him and we became good friends. Later on, Bob attended the seminary and now works as a priest in this diocese.
After scrubbing those monastery floors, a fifty-four journey of love had begun. Dad wasn’t happy that Mom was spending so much time at that monastery, but he tolerated it. He knew how much it meant to her. He also knew that Mom was helping watch Joyce’s children during the day so that she could work from home. Mom took the grandkids along on lots of journeys. Whenever she could, she would introduce the grandkids to the nuns by placing them on the turn for the nuns to see. Many years later, Dad retired and started helping her with some monastery errands. Soon after he was serving Mass and helping with the transportation. He liked to recall a special treat taking Bishop Sheen from the monastery to San Francisco. He learned Mom’s ways of volunteering at the monastery and at Kaiser Hospital where they worked together.
When Dad died in 1992, he provided very well for Mom, but he cautioned us kids that she would spend it all quickly. He was right. Mom was busy making donations to charities until she could hardly pay the bills. We talked with her about how the money has running out, put a reverse mortgage on the house, and put Mom on a budget. Each month she would spend her allowance to the penny keeping up with her charities, giving assistance to every needy person she met. She kept her own expenses to a minimum by shopping at the goodwill store and eating a very simple diet.
In the last few years Mom could hardly swallow. She never complained and kept up her volunteer schedule. When she couldn’t drive her car anymore, she gave it to someone in need. Her continued focus was her faith and her family. She would get up about 3:00 in the morning, begin her daily prayer and rosary, and watch EWTN, Catholic television. Later in the morning she would open the Monastery gate for the early Mass, and begin her volunteer efforts. She would have Masses said for each of her many children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. She would keep up with all the family birthdays and join all the family celebrations.
As we have prepared for this funeral I have met lots of people who met Mom at the monastery, in her neighborhood, and around town. Some just remember her warm, glowing smile, and loving words. Others have stories about her incredible generosity. Few know the story of the strong-willed heathen who converted to the faith and redirected her Irish temper to giving her life fully to loving God and loving her neighbor everywhere she went.
I have a picture of Mother Theresa at home. I am always struck by her gentle smile and her eyes full of love for anyone she met. As mom developed a deeper faith and a stronger love for everyone, she developed that same kind of Mother Theresa presence. I think the memory of her smile and her eyes full of love have brought so many here today.
I pray that many will follow her legacy of faith and total self-sacrificing love, the love of Jesus, Himself. Our world is a darker place since Mom has gone to heaven. We need many men and women of great faith and love to continue her legacy and to replace the light that has been lost with her passing. This will be a challenge to us all.
Finally, I want to thank each of you for coming to give mom a wonderful send off to her heavenly home. We look forward to joining her and seeing her loving smile once again.