Wednesday, November 6, 2019
Father Connery will be greatly missed. Our family has so many fond memories of him~ from when he first came to our church, St. Mary’s- my parents we’re both students in school there- they graduated in 1963 & 1965. He married them in April of 1966, and proceeded to baptize me in February of 1967, my sister in 1969, and my other in 1976. Father Connery was very good friends with my Grandmother and Grandfather Long, who were very active in the church and part of the “Kitchen Crew”- they cooked church meals for different events- Yearly, my grandparents would hold a get together at their camp for the “Kitchen Crew”, which Father always attended! In 1989, the first sad event happened, and that was the funeral of my Grandpa Long~ the comfort from Father was tremendous. In 1990, was the year he married me! It was shortly after this that Father left St. Mary’s. But, he returned- He returned in August of 2000 when we contacted him that my dad passed away at 54 years old of colon cancer- We couldn’t imagine anyone but him doing his funeral. He came immediately! Then he was there for us again- when my sister married her best friend in October 2001~ Who else could marry one of us? Only Fr. Connery- If Dad couldn’t be there, Father C would be! And if anyone ever needed a sign.... during his homily- Father was giving examples: “P” for........ I don’t remember all the details- what we DO remember- We looked at each other stunned, our mouths saying OMG! He just spelled the word P-E-P-S-I! For those that don’t know- it was my dad’s go to drink! Father didn’t do this on purpose- we told him after! He was shocked! I cried when my mom called and told me about Father Connery. He meant so much to us, as he did to many- but he had so many personal moments in our lives. Thinking of you all. RIP Father Tom and God Bless!
