Tuesday, September 22,2015
Dear Mom,
It has now been twelve months since you went away from us. Everyone is thinking about you even more than usual today. You would probably be surprised at how much you are missed and the nice things that everyone is saying about you today. You were a very special person who touched so many lives. You were very self-effacing and modest, so all of these compliments would probably embarrass you. As I said on facebook, you were an extraordinary woman with extraordinary accomplishments, who thought of herself as just a normal person doing what had to get done. That trait was definitely part of your charm, but I really wish you realized what an impact you had on all of our lives. Lindsay had a baby boy named Anderson Wylie and Sarah Rose passed the Florida Bar Exam. Both of those pieces of news would have made you very happy. You would have loved to hold and cuddle little Anderson. He is a beautiful baby. I went to Chicago in late June and had a nice time visiting my sisters and brother. Your's and Dad's presence were definitely missed. You have been up in Chicago in July for at least a decade in a row. I worked past those feelings and had a good time, especially with Kris and Mary. I have to tell you again that you have blessed me with wonderful siblings. My sisters are just the best. Each has their special strengths and all are so very nice to me. It is wonderful to have friends forever that are part of your family. I sorely miss our trips together. I am working so hard to get up some enthusiasm to go on a trip. I wouldn't even mind if I have to go alone-I understand that everyone has their own families and lives going on that make it hard to drop everything to travel with me. I keep thinking I should start with a short 4 day weekend trip alone, just to break my ambivalence about traveling since you've been gone. It still amzes me how much fun we had together on our trips and how compatible we were as travel companions. We were quite the traveling Mother and Daughter duo. I am so glad my schedule allowed us to have so many trips together. I also miss seeing you in Chicago, Plano and Sarasota. Those others trips really rounded out my year of seeing you and Dad and the family along with the beautiful cities we visited. I am still working on not being so sad when I think of you. I have made some progress but today does make me weepy. Dad and Sarah just got done visiting you at the cemetary. It is so beautiful where you are buried, Mom. I can't wait to see your headstone for myself sometime soon. I am trying to work on making meyself more healthy. Working out and trying to eat better is my basic plan. Easier said than done, but I will do my best. Jan has lost almost 50 lbs. on her diet. I am so proud of her. Please continue to watch over all of us, especially Dad. We all need your help and spiritual guidance. I am still waiting for my tap on the shoulder to let me know you are around me and are OK. My last trip will come and I will be with you before you know it. 

Love,
Your Daughter Carol

Dear Mom,
Eight months have passed since you went away. Every time I see a dimunative older woman I want to hug her because I miss hugging you. I still think about you a lot when I am driving home from work. Now it has happened a few times on my way to work. It is not good to get sad first thing in the morning. I thought the other day that I wished I had rubbed your back more when you asked. You worked so hard for all of us your whole life and it made you so happy to get a simple backrub. I woukd rub your back every day if I could. Dad talks to you all of the time. I hope you can hear him. Let him know you are in heaven. Watch over Ann. She needs a little help now and I know she must miss you terribly. I am going to Chicago at the end of June. I know that will be hard because that was where I saw you last as my Little Mommy that rallied to come see some of your family for the last time. Jan is going to be a Grandma, which makes her very happy. Lindsay is six weeks away from her due date. Maybe her baby will be named Jane, after you. I hope everyday that you will come and tap my shoulder to let me know know you are still around me. No one will ever love me like you did. That is what Mothers are for. No goodbyes from me. I will be with you before you know it.

Love,
Your Daughter Carol
Watren Zevon's song "Keep Me In Your Heart For Awhile" just started playing on my phone. It is the most beautiful but sad song. Was that you, Mom?

Dear Mom,
     Six long months have passed since you went away from us. Everyone else seems to be dealing with your passing in a mature way without being unbearably melancholy about it. They all seem to be able to think about you and talk about you with love and fondness. I have not gotten to that point yet, but I am definitely working on it. I don't want to continue to be overhwhelmed with sadness every time I think of you. I know you would not want that either. It is definitely a hard task for me. My siblings have all been so good to me. Thank you for giving me such strong sisters. I am having trouble making plans for the future, because our trips together and my trips to Chicago and Sarasota to see you, really made up the structure of my years. I can't seem to get excited about looking ahead to the future because I feel quite a vast emptiness in my life with you gone. I would give almost anything to see your little face one more time and have you reach out to hug me. I know I have to move past these feelings because there are still so many places I would like to travel to. It just will never be the same without my trusty little travel companion. I have to adjust to the new normal that is my life now. I think Dad is doing OK. He stills seems to worry about whether you are indeed in heaven. He also seemed worried that God would be angry with him because he made you work so hard in your earthly life. I know these concerns seem slightly irrational, but it just comes from his loneliness and too much time to brood. All of us do the best we can to console him and tell him of course you are in heaven and God is not angry at him. His last brother Joe died a few weeks ago, and I believe that must be very hard for him to accept. Not only did he lose you, the companion and love of his life, but he has also outlived every other member of his immediate family. I do not want to be the last living member of my family-that would be too hard for me to bear. Please do what you can to send him some peace and love so he will want to stay on this earth for a while longer. I would be ineffably sad if we lost Dad soon after we lost you. He will be with you soon enough. Ava continues to be one of the things I still find joy in. She is talking all the time and is so funny and sweet. I was with her a weeks ago and was reminiscing about you with Joel and Heather and I started crying and she was patting my arm telling me "you will be OK". She didn't know what was wrong but she sensed I needed some comforting. Lindsay will have a new baby in 3 months or so and that hopefully will bring everyone in Texas a lot of joy. I will squeeze that baby an extra time or two in honor of you and your supreme love of babies. As always Mom, I try to live my life in a way that would honor you and make you proud of me. I am a work in progress with more than my share of human weaknesses and foibles. All that is good in me is derived from your unconditional love and shining example. You always got back up when life would throw you a curve and I imagine with ten kids, there were a lot of curves that came your way. I yearn to see you in my dreams or feel your presence around me. I will be patient and trust that you will come to me when I need you most. As always, no goodbyes from me. Just know that my last trip will come and I will be with you before you know it. I hold that certainty close to my heart.

Your Loving Daugher,
Carol

Dear Mom,
Today is the three month anniversary of your passing. Having the most important person of your life gone from this earth for three months seems like a long sad eternity. Life goes on everywhere else, but a part of my heart is still stuck in the past on the last day I saw you. I wanted to have a conversation with you to tell you how much you had meant to me and to thank you for being the person who loved me the most on this earth. I had to accept that it was enough for you to know that Joel and I were there and that we came to say goodbye to you. I did not know that that visit would be our last. God took you away from us so fast. I thought we would have a little more time to feel each other's presence and share a few more words in that beautiful room with all of the windows. When next I saw you in that beautiful room with all of the windows, you had already gained the wings of a dove and had flown away to be at rest with Jesus. You were there but already gone. I spoke to you and touched you because I couldn't quite believe that you were really gone from our lives, after being the touchstone that held our family together for so long. I recently saw some pictures of you as young girl with your sister Alice and your parents and your grandmother. I wondered what that young girl and young woman dreamed about for her future. I hope becoming a nurse and meeting a young soldier during the war and getting married right after the war, fulfilled some of your dreams. I can't imagine you ever dreamed you would have ten children, but you handled it with grace and patience and a heart full of love. You made each one of us feel so special and wanted and important. I hope we brought you a lot of joy to balance out the day to day heartache and worry we must have caused you. One thing we always knew about you is that you loved babies. Lindsay is pregnant now and due in early July 2015. I know you would be so happy for Lindsay and Russell and Jan and Dave as well. You would have been looking forward to a another baby to hold. I promise to tell this new baby all about their wonderful Great Grandmother who was like no other. This baby will know of your big heart and how much you loved and sacrificed for your family and how fun you were as well. If heaven works like I believe, you will be the first to see this new little soul and tell him/her about the wonders that await them on earth. Time marches on and Christmas is just a few days away. Five of your children and four of your granddaughers will be in Florida to bring some joy to Dad. He continues to be lost and sad. I hope he finds some solace in his family and his religion. I want him to believe that life still has meaning even though his best girl is gone. I have my own road to travel to get some peace in my life and not be so melancholy ever time I think of you. For some inexplicable reason my head fills with thoughts of you and I get sad every time I am in traffic driving home from work. I do always remember you ending almost every conversation with the words "drive carefully and you know I love you very very much". As you always knew, I hate to say goodbye which is why it is so hard for me to let you go. I will persevere everyday to live a life that would make you proud. My final trip will come and I will be with you before you know it. A little tap on my shoulder every now and then would fill my heart with joy and wonder.

Love, Your Daughter Carol

Both in our  our phone calls and when we were together,  I knew I could ask you about anything and you would tell me the truth rather than what I may have wanted to hear.

Mom, I'm so happy that you got a chance to meet and get to know Ava. One of the last things you said to me was when Ava's older to tell her that you loved getting to know her. "Grandma Essie" as Ava calls you will be getting many examples of your  hardwork, love, and sacrifices. I remember when we used to go to church and you used to "rest your eyes" during the sermon. Looking back it was probably the only ten minutes during the week you ever had a chance to relax between work and raising 10 kids. Anytime I ever felt sorry for myself you always had a way to make me realize how lucky we were. I appreciate your perspective on life as well as your enduring faith. I was always amazed at how you always knew what each of your kids needed whether we were 7 or 67. We miss you.

Mom,thank you for all the unconditional love and understanding you gave to me these past 39 plus years. I feel especially fortunate to have enjoyed the company of you and Dad all these years in Florida. The Brzezinski family is an outstanding testimony to such a loving foundation you laid so long ago, Kathy and I have always tried to follow that example. Lastly, thank you, both Mom and Dad, for Sassy!

Grandma was such a wonderful and caring woman. She was always such a positive light in all of our lives. She cared a great deal for those around her, and the world responded by loving her so much. Such a dignified and graceful woman it is truly tragic thinking about losing her. She will live on in the hearts of all that knew her over the years. Love you with all my heart. Thanks for all the great life lessons you taught us.

Mom, it still feels surreal that I can't just pick up the telephone and talk to you whenever I want to or just need to hear your voice. Fortunately for me, I will always be able to see your beautiful face in my mirror whenever I look at myself. You sacrificed so much for all of us and taught all of us by example how to be the people that you saw (in us) with your eyes and your heart. I will feel accomplished in my life's achievements if I could be considered even half as good a wife and Mom as you were. I love you and will miss you for the rest of my life. But, I know that you are happy and that you can catch up now on all of the sleep that you missed out because you worked so hard for the rest of us. Please tell God that I said thanks for letting me be one of yours. Jan

You were just the BEST mom. My favorite phone companion of all time. I never ever heard you complain about a thing in your life, What an amazing person Esther was.


October 21, 2014.

Hey Dad:

I have so many amazing memories of Mom; I don't where to start.As a kid I remember wanting to go grocery shopping so I could help pick out the food; but it also was chance to hang out with Mom without 9 other brothers and sisters around. Lots of good memories of National ad Dominick's.  I remember Mom driving me on my paper route when necessary.  I remember fondly dinner time and some my favorites that she concocted. Pot Roast, Tuna Fish and Noodles and the infamous Cream Dried Beef on Toast. I alwyas enjoyed the times when you guys would hot Bridge night at the house. I remember how she could get by on almost no sleep to take care of her family. What I remember the most though is how strong she was when both of her parents; Uncle Frank and Aunt Edna reached out to her in their time of need and she always answered the Bell. I came to expect no less from her. She was truly amazing! We think about her and her legacy every day!

Love Mike and Jackie

Mom/Esther you're loving heart beats in the family you nourished and loved. Your Son Tom so much like you kind and gentle mixed with humor. For me a precious gift.
Love, Joan

I realize that a plan was set into motion many years ago. Phil & I left home and family in Il when we moved to CA shortly after our marriage in 1975. We were there only a short time, but enough to know that it wasn't what we thought.
You, Dad, Carol & Joel made your big move to Florida just after we left for CA.
So, we left CA to join you in a new life in Sarasota. That was a trip!
We were sent to watch over & care for Phil's grandma who resided by herself at Shell Point Village in Fort Myers. We did that until her death many years later.
But, it was destiny that we were to get to know mom and dad in their later years when they, too, would take on new identities. They weren't ready to quit working and take life easy yet. In fact, both of them were still happily working when tragedy struck.  Mom had her stroke and life, as we knew it, changed for all of us.
Dad had his accident at Publix, but it was necessary for him to quit there so that he could care for Essie. She rallied and gained back some of those lost faculties. She never complained and was always apologizing for those things she could no longer do. I realized during this time of change that there was a bigger reason why we were here. It was my turn to help them after years of relying on them to help us. Mom made it possible for Phil to be present at the birth of his daughter when he thought he couldn't do it. She was unstoppable for almost 90 years when her Lord told her that she was tired and heaven was ready for her now. We weren't ready to let her go, but we know that this was always her destiny. 
She was a lady like no other. She loved her husband, all of her children and her life, till the very end. She taught me so much just by being herself. 
I will think of her and miss her every day till we meet again. I love you, Mom.
 
                                                 Kathy Saul, to my Mom

Dear Mom,
     Today would have been your 90th birthday. Happy Birthday to you my sweet mother! You lived quite a life in your 89 years and 49 weeks here on this earth. You were a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.Your legacy will live on forever in all of our family and friends whose lives you touched. What you taught me was nothing gets done without hardwork, which you were never afraid of, how to be unselfish and put others before yourself, how to be loving to everyone who needs some love and how to have a powerful faith in your Lord that brings you comfort all of your life. I can only aspire to take on the qualities you taught me through word and deed. Our special bond was our love of travel and I will treasure forever our 14 trips together to lands near and far. I love you very very much and miss you every day. Life seems a whole lot emptier without you, but I will strive to live a good life to honor myself and you. I know we will meet again on my last trip, you just went on a little ahead of me this time. Today I hope you are with Tom, and your sister Alice and maybe your beloved friend Gen McGinley and having a heavenly cocktail. Please watch over us all but especially watch over Dad because he is missing you so much. He doesn't quite know what to do without his sweetheart Essie of 68 years. Give him strength and faith and cloak him in your love to get him through each long day without you. You know I always hated saying goodbye, so I will just say we will be together before you know it.
Love, Your daugher Carol

Uncle Steve and Family,
Aunt Esther will be deeply missed.   We have so many great Florida memories and many include our time visiting with you!  No doubt she is with the angels; smiling down from heaven.  May God grant you strength and peace during this difficult time.  Love you!  Annie and Bruce Deckard and families

So sorry to hear about the passing of Mrs B. I will always remember her warm smile and great personality, she was a wonderful person, so glad I had the chance to meet her.  Mr. B. must be heartbroken, sending positive thoughts to Steve and his family.

Dave and I send our deepest sympathy on your loss of Esther!!!  Keeping all of you in our prayers!!!  Esther, you will be sorely missed!

Esther, you will be forever missed. I've only known you about 11 months, but you were and are one of the sweetest people I've ever met. Watch over Steve and the rest of your family. Miss you bunches. Love always, your Emeritus Family

Uncle Steve and family:
Trina and I were very sorry to hear of Aunt Esther's passing. We will keep you in our thoughts and prayers. 

                                                    Dave and Trina Bell
                                                    Palatine, Illinois

Kristin and Adam.... We send our most sincere condolences on the loss of your mom and grandmom and our former neighbor.  Sending prayers for her lovely soul.

     It was but one short meeting-a quick lunch with Esther, Mr. Brzezinski & Carol.  I didn't go intending to have my life and outlook changed, but it was.  To see the strength of the bond between this husband and wife and to hear the amazing stories of their youth, courting & marriage, and long life together was one of those rare things in life that instill hope & happiness in those of us who are "younger" and still surrounded by the pains and uncertainties of living in the modern world.  
      Her outer and inner beauty were immediately apparent, and, if I can feel such loss after having only met her once, I know this must be overwhelming for all of you.  Please know, Carol, Jan, Mr. Brzezinski and everyone that we have you in our hearts and thoughts here in Dallas.  I hope the memory of her wonderful life soon eases the pain.  What a special lady.  

James Gibbs

My Dearest Esther, 
You kindly opened your heart and arms to
me when I married Michael. I will always be grateful for your unselfish love and acceptance. You were an amazing woman. I am truly blessed to have had you in my life.

May God bless your beautiful soul and we now have one more Guardian Angel above.

Will will miss you Esther.  It was a privilege to have known you.

Dear Grandma, 
I already feel so far away from all of the family and now it's even worse. I cried for quite some time, but I had the love, support, and prayers of all my sorority sisters. I already miss you so much! You were so incredible I almost can't put it into words. You were always so funny and the best dressed in the room. I will love you forever and I am so glad to have such a beautiful angel above me now. 

Endless Xoxo's 

- Your Vegas Granddaughter Jessie :)

AVIS DE DÉCÈS

Esther Brzezinski

13 octobre 1924 – 22 septembre 2014

Robert Toale & Sons Funeral Home at Palms Memorial Park

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