Emogene Oler Grill

Emogene Oler Grill Arden � Emogene Oler Grill crossed over into eternity on Monday, October 5, 2009. She was born to Naomi Ellis Oler and Emmett Oler in Greenville, TX, Hunt County, on May 17, 1911. As a young child she moved with her family to Harlingen, TX, where she lived until 1961. In 1947 she married Roy Matthias Grill, who preceded her in death in 1963. Of this union were born two daughters: Cecelia Ann and Jane Elizabeth. Jane Elizabeth preceded her mother in death in 1992. Emogene is also survived by a granddaughter, Melissa Hampton and her four children and two grandsons, Charles and Chris. For most of her adult life, Mrs. Grill was a professional librarian, beginning her career as a high school librarian in Harlingen, TX, then as head Air Force librarian at Harlingen Air Force Base and head librarian at Randolph Air Force Base, winning many worldwide Air Force Library competitions. She moved with her family to New Braunfels, TX in 1961 where she worked part time at the Dittlinger Memorial Library. She moved to Fletcher, NC October 6, 1997 to be near her daughter Cecelia. Her personal and social interests were mainly in the field of music and other performing arts. She had a large assortment of friends in many different walks of life with whom she shared varied interests. She loved to travel�anywhere�and during her retirement years she was able to visit some of the far away places she had longed to see. Now she has embarked on her last long journey, and has traveled beyond our scope into the larger life. She will not be able to send home picture postcards describing her trip, but those who are left at home can well imagine the joy of this journey. When a mother dies, most of the family's continuity is lost with her; the continuity of time, memory, and even love. Whether one is 15 or 50, when a child's mother is taken, there is the heavy complaint of the heart that something has ended. There is the closing and locking of a door. There should not be an excess of grief with this women's passing, for now there is an invisible web spun between the beloved and loving daughter who is left behind, and the spirit of her mother who will always be there, just beyond the door of the Larger Room. The world will not change because of Emogene's passing. Externally, all the old routines go on. The sun rises as it has to. The seasons come and go and life follows an inexorable path. Life's paradoxes come into sharper focus; children play and quarrel, then play again with joy and laughter. All things seem to conspire in filling up the empty chambers of a lonely heart. A mother's death brings home, as few other things, the truth of one's own mortality. When at last�soon or late�we face the unalterable fact of death, we feel the bitter brevity of our days descend on us like a heavy burden, and as we return to our daily and familiar routines, we know that what we must do must be done quickly, that the bell tolls for us. In the days of fresh mourning, there is a growing compassion for others who have lost, and a mild surprise that others, too, have walked a mother to a grave. For sorrow always seems unique until it thaws to compassion. We find it easier to visit old haunts, to live through anniversaries, listen to her favorite music, to sift through mementos, to dispose of personal possessions. Grief comes full circle when a deceased mother's child can once again laugh at long remembered jokes and antics, when, "Do you remember when�?" or "Do you recall how�?" can be said without a catch in the throat or a tear in the eye. We have lost a friend and a mother to this earthly life, but we know that in the City of God there is a new citizen. A celebration of Emogene Grill's life will be held at 7:00 pm Thursday, October 8th at her daughter's home in Fletcher and a Mass of Resurrection will be said at 10:30 am Friday, October 9th at St. Barnabas Catholic Church in Arden. (The great majority of this obituary was written by Emogene on November 26, 1992.)