This memorial website was created in the memory of our loved one, Dolores Elaine Sherman-Egan who was born on April 29, 1924 and passed away on June 24, 2010. She will be forever in our hearts.
Her Memorial Service will be held on July 7, 2010 at 12 Noon, Skyline United Church of Christ, 12540 Skyline Blvd., Oakland, CA. A Celebration of Life reception will be held at the family home in Castro Valley immediately following the service. Please contact a family member for details.
Dolores was a strong, independent, vital woman, with a generous heart and wonderful sense of humor. Her company will be deeply missed by many and her passing is grievously mourned by both loving family and friends. Her soul now joins those who have gone before her, beloved parents, sisters, brothers and friends and together they are at final peace.
In lieu of flowers, a memorial donation in Dolores’ name can be made to: The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Fund, http://ww5.komen.org/donate/donateonline.html#memorial or the charity of one’s choice.
A Mass for the Dead will be said in her honor September 13, 2010 at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church in Castro Valley, CA.
Dolores was born in Wesley, Iowa, April 29, 1924, beloved daughter of Martha Matern (d. 1962) and Henry J. Sherman (d. 1952), and sibling to Mary Sherman-Durkin (d. 1993) of San Diego, CA, Duane Sherman (d. 2002) of Newport Beach, CA, Thomas Sherman (d.1992) of Mason City, IA, Donald Sherman (d. 1978) of Algona, IA, Virginia Sherman-Munson (d. 1973) of Santa Monica, CA, Cornelius Sherman (d. 2005) of Des Moines, IA, Delmar Sherman (d.2006) of Dubuque, IA. She is survived by her dear sister, Wanda Sherman-Dudek of Littleton, Colorado; her beloved six daughters: Brenda J. Souza, Maureen D. Warwick, Margaret A. Simonsen, Virginia L. Ranella, Dolores L. Egan, Christine R. Vaa; six devoted grandchildren, Brian Souza, Stephanie Souza-Thompson, Elizabeth Souza-Broers, Justin Simonsen, Saul Ranella and Sarah Dewitt; and seven, much-loved great-grandchildren, Cole Souza, Tanner Souza, Emma Broers, Kate Broers, Colin Broers, Owen Thompson and Alison Thompson. She is also survived by her extended family of many loving relatives and friends.
Dolores was a graduate of Wesley High School, Wesley, IA, most recently attending her 65-70th Class Reunion. She lived the majority of her adult life in Castro Valley, and was Credit Manager and Board Secretary for Sysco Corporation, retiring in 1989. She was a member of the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco and both actively engaged in, and supporter of many cultural, spiritual, and environmental organizations. She considered herself very fortunate to spend her retirement enjoying her family, friends, varied interests and world travels.
Tributes
Leave a tributeI still miss you every day and hope heaven is filled with endless joy.
Love, Dori
Love always, Dori
Happy Birthday where ever your spirit may be know that I love and miss you.
Rest in peace. Say hi to mom.
Hopefully your life is now filled with joy.
Love, Dori
I will always love you.
Wishing she was here to share this with her.
Thinking of you today and sending a special prayer of love and peaceful serenity for you and joyous life for all your daughters. It's been 2 years and we still miss you.
I miss your smile,your touch,your very essence. Thank you for loving me Mom and being my friend.
Love,
Ginny
Leave a Tribute
Please be patient.
Clear Creek Memories
The true meaning of Mothers Day
By : Julia Ward Howe ~ 1870
Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
"Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."
From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says, "Disarm, disarm! The sword is not the balance of justice." Blood does not wipe out dishonor nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each learning after his own time, the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.
In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.
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This is the proclamation Julia Ward Howe wrote in 1870, which explains, in her own impassioned words, the goals of the original holiday. I know our mother would have loved this, yet I do not think she knew of it. ~~ dori
Two Poems by Mary Oliver
Mom loved the poetry of Mary Oliver, especially the "Red Bird" book. Here are two of her favorites, the bolded section in the second poem, I read at her memorial service.
RED BIRD
Red bird came all winter
Firing up the landscape as nothing else could.
Of course I love the sparrows,
those dun-colored darlings, so hungry and so many.
I am a God-fearing feeder of birds,
I know He has many children, not all of them bold in spirit.
Still, for whatever reason--perhaps becasue the winter is so long
And the sky so black-blue, or perhaps because the heart narrows
as often as it opens--I am grateful that red bird comes all winter
firing up the landscape, as nothing else can do.
Red Bird Explains Himself
"Yes I was the brillance floating over the snow
and I was the song in the summer leaves, but this was only the first trick
I had hold of among my other mythologies,
for I also knew obedience; bringing sticks to the nest,
food to the young, kisses to my bride.
But don't stop there, stay with me: LISTEN.
If I was the song that entered your heart
then I was the music of your heart, that you wanted and needed,
and thus wilderness bloomed there, with all its followers:
gardeners, lovers, people who weep for the death of rivers.
And this was my true task, to be the music of the body.
Do you understand? for truly the body needs a song, a spirit, a soul.
And no less, to make this work, the soul has need of a body,
And I am both of the earth and I am of the inexplicable
beauty of heaven,
where I fly so easily, so welcome, yes,
and this is why I have been sent, to teach this to your heart."