Monti & Cheryl Mantinband with Zach & Jeremiah
Eulogies
Monti’s Eulogy
No matter the age, or how anticipated the loss of one’s parents (and we didn’t expect it this soon - we thought dad would continue for some time) it’s never easy.
Dad never stopped seeing me as his “little” one. In doing so, he continued to teach me, by example, how to be the dad , and the person, I’ve become.
Several years ago, when I had surgery while living in MN and I told dad about it he insisted that upon my release from the hospital, that he come stay and take care of me during my recovery time at home.
While staying at my apartment, as the result of dad’s outgoing personality, he met and introduced me to my neighbors of five years. (People that I had seen, but never said more than “Hi!” to.)Because of his visit, I became close friends with them and we still stay in touch with to this day, even though I’ve moved here, one is still in MN. Whenever we go to either state, we get together.
I am so grateful that my two boys, Jeremiah and Zachariah got to know and have had a close strong bond with their Zeydie as well.
For example, once when my youngest, Jeremiah, and I were visiting dad at the Hallmark, dad left his apartment and was gone for too long, Jeremiah became worried and said, “I have to go find Zeydie and make sure he’s ok.” JJ put his shoes on, took my hand and literally tried to drag me out the door of dads apartment to go look for him. We had to check on Zeydie, make sure he was ok , and bring him back home.
More recently, while Zeydie was recovering in the rehab wing of Surrey Place the nurses employed our children to help Zeydie recover. (Dad didn’t always want to cooperate with them. He would say, “What’s the point?”) We were given some exercises for Zeydie to help strengthen his hand eye coordination and Zach took his role in helping Zeydie get better very seriously. Zach proceeded to work with Zeydie using a couple of jigsaw puzzles having him put the puzzles together. Just this morning, when talking to Zach about his working with Zeydie, Zach told me that Zeydie had, with Zach’s help, progressed from having to have the puzzle pieces handed to him to picking the puzzle pieces up on his own. Zach didn’t have to hand the puzzle pieces to him.
The nurses, seeing how Dad always perked up and responded to them when they came to visit, said, “These two, right here, are the best medicine for him.” Dad was always there for them. No matter what, he would find the strength to perk up and smile when he saw them.
Dad, we all miss and love you very much.
Cheryl’s Eulogy
“I had a written eulogy but I have to add first that when I walked into this room I noticed the Lion sleeping what appears to be above the casket. My father in law’s middle name was Lion. How appropriate this is.
He often said “when something goes wrong it’s my fault, blame it on me”. Hakuna Matata. No worries. That is what that means to me.
I did not get to know my father in law in a conventional way. As I was dating Monti who was living in Minnesota at the time I would go to his fathers’ house to help him with his “email machine” that sat on the kitchen table. It often occurred that I would call Monti and he would instruct me on how to repair the issue. It was those times that I got to know my father in law and fell in love with his family and at which time I did not know I was going to marry this man. I heard about the stories of his childhood as well as stories about my late mother in law Edith whom I had known since I was a young child.
Zach and Jeremiah Eulogize Zeydie
Twinkle twinkle little stars
We light your path no matter where you are
Our love will guide you to where you belong
With our Bubie Edith you will become strong
We know our visits made your day
We know your love for us is here to stay
We too enjoyed our time with you
How lucky we were to have known you too
We are so glad we knew you well
All the stories we could tell