Mary Julia (Bunty) Geercken (née Coughlan) was born on August 19, 1932 in Westport, Ireland. She was the third of eight children, raised by her parents, Mary and Patrick Coughlan, in a rural part of County Mayo.
Life on the family farm was characterized by lots of love, laughter and camaraderie, but the family endured challenges and tragedy too. Her eldest brother died in childhood, and her father passed when Mary was just 13 years old. At 15, she began working at a local shirt factory to help her mother and siblings make ends meet. When she was 17, her mother arranged for Mary to travel to Brooklyn, New York to live with her aunt and uncle, Pat and Georgina Hughes. It was there that she first met her cousins, Anna, Julia and Patsy Hughes, who embraced her as a sister. Mary always treasured her relationships with her cousins and viewed them as siblings.
Shortly after arriving in New York, Mary began working at the famed Waldorf Astoria Hotel. She started as a page and then worked in the Front Office. It was there that she met her husband of 58 years, Walter Geercken, who worked at the hotel’s florist.
After Mary and Walter married, they moved to the Village of Freeport. She and Walter raised three children there, while Walter worked at the Atlantic Nursery and Mary became a devoted and active member of Our Holy Redeemer Church. Among other things, she volunteered at the church, at Our Holy Redeemer School and at the local soup kitchen. She and Walter were open and unfailingly generous with their time and resources and frequently welcomed visitors from all over the world into their home. In the late 1970’s, they took on the role of host parent for an Australian teenager, Nick Murfett, for a year; he quickly became and still remains another part of the family. In Freeport, Mary also took on the role of primary caregiver with tenderness and good humor of her blind and ill mother-in-law for more than 13 years.
In later years, Mary and Walter moved to Langhorne PA, where they provided tremendous support to their eldest daughter and her family. Mary became a part of the Saint Ignatius faith community, as well as the Fairless Hill YMCA and forged numerous valuable friendships there. For the past 8 years, Mary and Walter have lived, loved and celebrated life in Lewisville, TX, ten minutes from their youngest daughter, Elisabeth and her family. St. Ann Catholic Church was a wonderful new parish where she formed new and lasting relationships in the parish and among her neighbors and friends in Vista Ridge Estates. Mary died at home on June 13, 2020, of advanced Alzheimer’s disease, with dignity, maintaining a kind and peaceful grace to the very end.
Mary’s family was wide-reaching: her husband, her children, Janet and Sig Feile and the entire team at Atlantic Nursery, her 7 siblings, their families across the globe in Ireland, England, France, Germany, Australia, India and any other kindly kindred spirit crossing her path.
She is survived by her husband, Walter, her children and their respective spouses, Maria and Chris Herrel, Karl and Monica Geercken (née Mukherji) and Elisabeth and William Daron Cole; her grandchildren: Philip Anil Geercken, Sean Walter Geercken, Christopher Gerard Herrel, Julia Frances Herrel, Kenneth William Cole, Ryan Charles Cole, Nikolas Walter Cole and Martin Patrick Cole. Her sister, Breda Basquill, Covid-19 survivor, continues her life journey in Padiham, England. Mary cherished all her Irish siblings – Patrick, Elly, Breda, Vera, Carmel, Kitty and John – Marcel Derrien, Vera’s surviving husband, Marcie Coughlan, John’s surviving wife, and Mary’s many nephews and nieces.
Mary’s life was characterized by kindness, generosity, a commitment to service and simple humility – values that served her well and enriched all who met her.
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