What would you like to know about St. Joan of Arc? Do you have a story about our parish or of general interest that you think others would like to hear? For story ideas, contact Jeff Rholl, jeff@stjoan.com.

Marlys Weber(right) sits at her dining room table which is piled high with notebooks and stacks of documents, a detailed paper trail of one of her passions: a Memorial Garden for cremated remains on the church grounds of St. Joan of Arc.

This particular passion began, not without obstacles, back in the early 1990s when she was introduced to Father George Martin, pastor of St. Luke¹s Episcopal Church on 46th Street, not far from her home. Not long after, she found out about their memorial garden. The idea of the simplicity of cremation coupled with a dignified burial ritual and the low cost struck her as a great alternative to the usual practice and price of burial today. Maryls experienced this personally with the death of her father in 1996. According to AARP, funeral and burial costs today can easily reach $10,000.

More than anything, however, Marlys was interested in making a real connection with those members of St. Joans who have gone before with those still alive; “an extension of our church home”, according to her. Marlys then wrote to the parish and asked for permission to start a memorial garden on the grounds. She offered a donation of $1,000 to jump-start the deal. Her request was denied. No room, she was told, and the idea was put on hold.

Dreams have a way of being shot down, but Marlys isn’t one to let that deter her. First, she had to find a few people who thought the way she did and who would support her. At St. Joans, this part wasn¹t hard. Don Hall and Mary Eve Thomas were among the first who pledged their help. Pat Greene, Joan Riebel and Steve Boyle followed soon after. From September, 2003, to December conversations continued among the skeleton crew about how to move forward with the project while keeping simplicity, spirituality and ecology in mind.

Finally, after getting permission, Marlys and Don Hall were put on the agenda of the Pastoral Council for their February, 2004, meeting. Father George was against the idea - he had difficulties running a cemetery at another parish when he was younger - and didn’t want to repeat them. Steve Boyle, however, who was president of the Council at the time offered his strong support.

Encouraged, Marlys intensified her work. She made a call to Catholic Cemeteries and was referred to John Cherek, archdiocesan director of that organization. John told Marlys that he had no authority and that the pastor has to take responsibility for such an endeavor. He also mentioned that cremation doesn¹t concur with Catholic tradition. (This turned out to be questionable.) When told of this, Father George offered to call Father Kevin McDonough, Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia for the Archdiocese.

In the meantime, the St. Joan’s Pastoral Council validated what became the Memorial Garden Committee, which immediately set out to take an informal poll to see if members were interested in such an idea. The results were encouraging, and more committee members were recruited from that list, Jo Youngren and Edie Kalweit among them. Prior approval was received from Zoning and Environmental Health. A Garden Concept was drawn by Bachmans in February 2004 and the project was well on its way."

The St. Joan of Arc Memorial Peace Garden would be located north of the church adjacent to the Left Field farming garden.

During this time, Chuck McDonald, interested SJA member, was a steady source of encouragement and suggestions. “Don’t take no for an answer. Hang in there!” he told her. His faith in Marlys and the project has been an enormous help in keeping her going, she says.

At Father McDonough¹s request, Father Jim Notebaart, director of the Archdiocese Office of Indian Ministry agreed to attend the committee meetings. Steve Boyle, thinking we needed some legal advice, invited Father Ron Bowers, a cannon lawyer who teaches at St. Thomas University, to sit on the committee. These two, along with John Cherek, became known as The Three Wise Men of our group.

The first meeting of what was now the entire committee was on November 12th, 2004. We met in the Daisy Room of the Parish offices, and began to get acquainted. Fathers Jim and Ron, along with John Cherek, represented the Archdiocese. The rest of us represented ourselves as members of St. Joans at large, with Pete Eichten, official representative as Parish Administrator of St. Joans.

Jo Youngren's husband Dave made this urn for her cremains.

Father Jim explained that we had a lot of homework to do in order to produce a document that could be handed to the Archbishop for his consideration, and what we hoped would be his approval. Father Jim suggested that we refine the work already done and divide the bulk of the rest of it among ourselves. This included our mission statement, an introduction validating the idea from spiritual, ecological, and financial points of view, cannon law on the subject, how the actual burial would be carried out and who would be responsible for it, finance policy and cost estimates, along with legal considerations. We left that meeting, slightly dazed, but faced with another meeting in only 2 weeks, each of us aware that we had to get busy.

Meetings continued the rest of the year as we grappled with all of these components until agreement was made to the statements and the wording throughout. Somewhere during this time, Chuck Collins, St. Joan member and a lawyer, agreed to go over the Purchase Agreement part of the document to check its legal status.

Finally, in March, 2005, the finished document was handed to Pam Oleson-Kremer, editor and parish typist extraordinaire, who put her skills to work to make our proposal pristine. John Cherek was given a copy to hand to Father Kevin McDonough. Father McDonough, we presume, has had cannon lawyers and other Archdiocese representatives scour the document for errors or conflicts with Church teachings or policy. After studying it himself, he will hand the document, along with his recommendation, to Archbishop Flynn, whose decision will be final.

In the meantime, we wait. That is, most of us wait. Marlys, however, who traveled to Haiti in January, 2005, and saddened and stunned at what she saw there, is trying to get help for the hospital in Cite Soleil where there is no potable water. They desperately need a well. A doctor there explains the only one they have needs some costly repairs, so that two new wells would be ideal. Marlys is elated upon hearing the cost. Her mind is clicking off ways to raise that kind of money for so worthy a cause. Another passion is in the making.

Of course she hasn¹t forgotten the Memorial Garden. She is already checking out biodegradable containers appropriate for cremated remains, and the best place to buy a wall of granite for the Garden where names of persons interred there would be carved. Father Harvey Egan, Pastor Emeritus, hearing of the plan, wants to be the first resident in the garden, but no one wants him to have to be. We, the committee, remain cautiously optimistic, while some decide to assail Heaven with our request for a positive outcome. Still, we all wait.

Members of the Memorial Committee:(L to R) Edie Kalweit, Jo Youngren, that French girl, Mary Eve Thomas, Pat Greene, Marlys Weber, Don Hall

Jo Welch-Youngren worked with Harvey Egan in the early days of St. Joan of Arc. At that time she, Cy and Joan Speltz, Nancy Anderson, Darlene Arbuckle, Ferry Deslauriers, and John McGowan made up the staff. We all pitched in and did everything that needed doing and had a ball every day. Jo’s first husband, Jack Welch, was buried from St. Joan’s in 1980. Later she married Dave Youngren, moved to New Mexico, then returned to her roots. Now she and Dave sit on the left side center at the 9:00 o’clock Mass on Sundays and love every minute of it. Jo can be reached at joandave@ties2.net.