Lorene Wilma Godair

Lorene Godair of St. Charles, MO, died peacefully on Monday afternoon October 21.

She was born January 20, 1925 to Louis and Amelia (Hohmann) Hardt in St. Louis, MO. She was preceded in death by her parents, her younger brother, Walter (Virginia) of Minneapolis, her husband Roy of 69 years, and her daughter Margaret (John) Preiss. She is survived by her daughter Carolyn (Jerry) Warmann, three granddaughters Emily Warmann (Darrel Jenerette), Kathryn (Ben) Clayton, Elizabeth Preiss (Medro Brodeur), and six great-grandchildren.

Lorene and Roy married on Nov. 27, 1947 and moved to Ellisville, MO in 1954 with their two daughters. Like most women of that era, she was primarily a homemaker caring for her home and family. Most people would use just a few words to describe Lorene and the tenets by which she lived her life.

The first would be Faith. Lorene had a strong faith. She cultivated and nurtured that faith through daily prayer, devotions, and reading the Bible. Church was an important part of her faith and she attended Christ United Church of Christ regularly. As she matured in her faith, she sang in the choir, taught Sunday School, and participated in church youth groups, camp, leadership programs, and adult fellowship groups. After she married and had children, we attended every Sunday, even when it meant rising early enough to make the 20-mile trip and be on time for Sunday School.

The second word to describe what was important to her is Family. Even as a child, she was a participating member of the family. Before she married, she helped her parents however they needed it including trips to Grandparents’ homes to work in the garden and bring vegetables home for preservation – it was the Great Depression, after all.

Family included caring. When a cousin’s daughter required hospitalization as a child, Lorene added the younger daughter to the family; when her brother developed cancer, she went to Minneapolis to care for him in the last weeks of his life, and when her mother was incapacitated by a stroke, Lorene moved her into her home and nursed for her nearly six years.

After she married and moved to Ellisville, we spent every weekend with her parents and with her in-laws. Through the years, she prepared meals for the extended family of cousins, and in-laws for birthdays, holidays, summer barbeques, anniversaries and other events made special because she wanted to celebrate. She welcomed the friends of her daughters to the house and soon considered them part of the family as well, including them in meals, giving them cookies, mending their cuts and scrapes. She genuinely loved children and took pleasure in their accomplishments and growth.

The third word to describe Lorene is actually two words that are tied together, Frugality and Work. As a child of the Great Depression, she never wasted anything, never bought anything she didn’t need, and never paid more for it than necessary. Clipping coupons and watching sales were a way of life. Making clothes for herself and her daughters was preferred to buying them and they were usually a little loose so we could “grow into them.”

It wasn’t long after she moved to Ellisville that a big garden appeared in the lot next door which belonged to her parents. Every day in the summer, she could be found, hoe in hand tending the vegetable plants growing in the soil or harvesting the crop, then preserving it in Mason jars to be enjoyed through the remainder of the year. Trips to peach orchards in southern Illinois resulted in jars of fruit for the winter, and blackberries harvested from the river hills around Washington, MO became jars of the most amazing blackberry jelly, ever.

After her daughters married and moved from home, these growing, harvesting, and preserving jobs grew to include produce for their families to enjoy.

Her strong work ethic meant Lorene never sat down until the last supper dish was washed, dried, and stowed in the cabinets. Then when she did sit down, it was with handwork – knitting, crocheting, sewing, mending, or darning. When Roy took up embroidery after he retired and began making quilts, she did the French knots he couldn’t quite get right, then did the quilting in the smaller baby quilts.

Lorene was the epitome of the Golden Rule “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Her first thought was of others, she unfailingly thanked people for whatever they did – even if it was their job, admonished them to drive carefully on the way home, asked after them and their families. The perfect example was her response when I asked her which hospital she wanted the EMT’s to take her to, she said “whichever is most convenient for you.”

Those of us who knew her will always remember her with love and kind thoughts. She lived her faith through example caring for others and giving what support she could along the way. We will all miss you, and we all have a special memory of you that makes us smile. But we know you are where you want to be. Thank you for all you did to make us better people. May we do as well as you.

In lieu of flowers we ask that you make a donation to the Siteman Cancer Center for research in esophageal cancer.