Prof. Dr. Debora Weber-Wulff: Funerals

My cousin Mark Kelly, just two days older than me, passed away on September 11, 2024. We played together as kids during Thanksgiving an summers at the farm, but lost contact when I moved to Germany. Another victim of cancer.

Aunt Eleanor Lowry passed away on October 31, 2022. She was my Mom's adopted younger sister, the last one of the elders in my family to pass away. We had such fun with her because she was so near to our age. She finally found some half-siblings when she was older, and was so happy to speak with them and even to visit them in Canada. Granddad would never tell the story of her adoption, something that always bothered her. May she now watch over her beloved granddaughter, Mariah. Rest in Peace!

Stucki, the Lord of the Kellerkinder at the mathematics department of the FU Berlin, died on February 15, 2020. He taught me so much about the Internet, and about keeping calm when things appear to be going wrong. If you are in panic, you will make more mistakes. I really appreciated being accepted as just one of the hackers, no matter that I was a foreigner and a woman.

On February 2, 2020, a close friend I've been working with at VroniPlag Wiki passed away, Graf_Isolan. We often chatted about things plagiarism, religion, Krimis, and literally everything in the wee hours. He was quite influential in driving many of the cases documented at VPW. He died of cancer, nine years younger than me. He is sorely missed.

Reinhold's Aunt Gerda Wulff died on April 25, 2019. She and her husband Gerd were very close to us, as they are only about 10 years older than him. We visited them often, and their kids all spent time with us. She suffered from Parkinson's disease. The memorial service was very moving.

My mother, Lillis Ann Jane Weber, died on January 21, 2013. It was a long goodbye, as she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2000. The obituary is online at the Florida Times-Union.

My father, John Markel Weber, Sr., died on December 6, 2011. He had been in and out of hospital since August and had lost his will to fight. He was given morphium for pain, and drifted off in his sleep. We wanted to bury him in Renfrew, but the land had been auctioned off to a neighbor in a tax sale, he had't paid the taxes on it for some years. So we used one of the plots his father, David Markel Weber, had purchased at the cemetery in Butler . We have set up a memorial fund in his honor for Alzheimer's research.

Ruth Reichwald Gale, my high school chum, lost her fight against cancer May 12, 2010. She was just days shy of 3 years since her diagnosis. The scans in April had been stable - and suddenly she was gone.

My mother-in-law, Liselotte ("Lilo") Wulff, died suddenly of a stroke on November 4, 2009. She, too, had been fighting cancer, but had appeared to be on the way to getting better. She died a few days after her stroke in the hospital. I've blogged about her funeral, too.

My father-in-law, Karl ("Kalle") Wulff, was released from the infinite pain of dying from cancer on August 19, 2006. I wrote an obituary for him in my blog. He was able to die at home, holding his wife's hands, after a long fight against the cancers that ravaged his body.

Good friends Birgit and Dietmar Ziegler who worked in Maua, Kenia as missionaries building up a Methodist hospital were killed in the early morning hours of October 11, 2003 in an auto accident outside of Nairobi. They leave behind them 4 children, Nora, Samuel, Ronja and Jacob. They worked educating people on AIDS and on how to avoid burns and have helped so many people. I am very sad and pray for their souls as well as for their children and for the future of the hospital in Maua.
I have two pictures: Lecturing on their work and in a field of sunflowers. Anstelle von Kranz- und Blumenspenden bittet die Familie um eine Spende für den neu gegründeten Birgit und Dietmar Ziegler-AIDS-Fond der EmK-Weltmission, Ev. Kreditgenossenschaft Stuttgart, BLZ 600 606 06, Konto-Nr. 401 773.

My husband's uncle, Dipl.-Ing. Horst Wulff, died of lung cancer June 9, 2003. He studied in Kiel and worked at the metalworks Schröder & Co. until he retired. He was a fun person to be around and always had interesting stories to tell. He once even survived a run-in with a moose in Norway that wrecked his car, but the cancer was stronger than he was. At least he was able to die at the home he built in Lübeck with his family around him.

Dr. Anita Borg, a pioneer and visionary in computer science, passed away on April 6, 2003.

Dr. Isabel Stamm, the oldest daughter of Guy and Iva Stamm, died March 20, 2003 at the age of 92. She was the first professor in the family that I am aware of, and taught at Colombia University in New York. Isabel's great-great-great-grandfather Daniel Stamm was my great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, who left Hofgeismar in Hessia in 1802 to settle in Muddy Creek, Pennsylvania.

My uncle, James G. Kelly, the husband of Aunt Mary, died on May 9, 2002. Uncle Jim was a dentist in Indiana, PA. He had his own opinion about pretty much everything, and there was nothing anyone could do to change his mind. He did things his own way, period. If he was pressed into visiting family, about 10 minutes after coffee was served it was "Well, gotta get going here". He really liked being home. We used to celebrate Thanksgiving in Indiana, the last one I attended was in 1986. After plenty of food Uncle Jim and the kids (they had 5 kids, Jim, Jr., Pat, Stewart, Mark and David) would go down to the basement to watch football. I *hate* watching football, so I would go for a constitutional walk with the "ladies".
Uncle Jim was a pilot in World War II and was shot down over Germany. He refused to speak about the time he was in a prison camp. He did not approve of my going to Germany, nor of one of his kids wanting to take German in school. But when I came to visit with my German husband, he seemed happy to see us.
I spoke with cousin Pat the day before the memorial service, she said that Uncle Jim had planned everything exactly. There was to be just a 10 minute memorial service. "But," she said, "he's not here to stop people from speaking if they are so inclined." I hope they gave him an earful!

My maternal grandfather, Frederic Sanders Gibson, born in Birkenhead, England (across the Mersey River from Liverpool) on July 4, 1907, died in his sleep on March 31, 2000 in Jacksonville, Fla. His ashes are buried next to his first wife, my grandmother Ann Henderson Young, in Pinellas Park, Fla., where he lived for so many years.
I found all his important papers the week before the funeral and so was able to piece together the major events of his life. He was a tool-and-die maker, which seems at the time to have been something like a computer science person is today. He had a number of letters in his box that read something like this: "We have heard that you are a tool-and-die maker. If you are currently out of work or are interested in working for the world's best Whatever, please write to us at the address above."

A dear student of mine, Lilith Marquardt-Ganahl, lost a fight with cancer on March 2, 2000. She was the equal opportunity officer for our department until she was forced to quit school because of illness.

My aunt Mary Marie Weber Kelly, music teacher and mother of five, June 27, 1999.

My friend Kerstin Maaß, April 14, 1997, killed by a drunk driver who survived the accident. When will people learn not to drink and drive?

My favorite aunt, Clara Jean Weber, October 1995. She did not like the idea of the government meddling with her life, so she never paid for health insurance. Instead, she saved the same amount of money every month. As long as she was getting 5% interest, she could pay for health care from the interest. She did a lot of self-medication with kelp and iron supplements and lemon juice. But when interest dropped to just 3% right after she retired, she started skimping on health care. So one Sunday after finishing the church finances she noticed that she didn't feel good. She telephoned with a friend, and then called again to have the friend take her to the hospital instead of calling an ambulance. When the friend arrived, the house was locked, the lights were on, and she was passed out on the floor. The friend called the ambulance and broke a window to get in. But by the time she got to the hospital she was dead, of a heart attack, at 69. I quite miss her!

The Funerals Page