
I know now why I have delayed my writing a note about the Ruth that I knew.   For now, I can say thanks to those of you who have had your wits gathered enough to write about your experiences with this woman we all knew as 'Ruth'. My own mother has been gone several years ago. Perhaps she has been there readying a spot for Ruth.   I hope so, for these two women have left footprints for me to follow, and I hope that I don't mess up too badly -- for they taught me so much.   Mother's values were spoken in different format from Ruth. So if I don't get it one way, surely I will the other.  Erie, I had so, so hoped to find a way to come to be with you in telling her good-bye. My spirit is with you, my friend.   The only connection pure enough to say at this time is this: If I can just be your surrogate mom, it will hopefully be a light in my soul that stays lighted as long as I walk this pathway behind her.   Her tenacity, her spirit, her work ethic, her brillance in patient care, her values of life, her wonderful words of describing you Erie was so on target - even before I met you.   She loved her sons, her daughter, her grands and Roland. No matter the situation, you all were on her front row.   We met in Hondo, we last saw one another face-to-face in Austin where she had a storeroom of medical supplies for our Methodist hospital 10,000 miles away in Africa.   She knows now how many lives she saved by her giving heart, and how much ease she brought to lots of sick folk. On behalf of the Chicuque Rural Hospital in Mozambique, SE Africa, I just want to say one more thank you Ruth and, to you, her family.  I drove that loaded truck to Lubbock where it was down-loaded into a sea container. Eight months later, I helped unpack it. Each item had her spirit of good health stamped on it somehow.  What a respected lady she was -- from the bedside of the very ill, all the way to the halls of conventions, state affairs and church, I was always honored to be in her company.  Save a place for me Ruth. One day I want sit with you and Mother and talk about when you wore newspapers in your shoes to keep the ice and snow from coming through the holes, while you attended school - so you could learn more and more about helping others.   I miss you,yet I know you are taking care of things there and making it alright for everyone.



I took some time off from work for my mother's funeral. Comming across the Weed-Corley-Fish's website, I read the comments from Viola Brooks, David Fleming, and Jeff Benitz. Their comments have left me week in the knees with gratitude.      I too will miss this very generous woman. Mother raised three children, ran several nursing homes, attained her BSN degree from Wayne State University all at the same time. Very few women could have pulled this off successfully.      Let me recount an incident that I was witness to about 18 years ago. I was visiting mother at her home in San Antonio. A former employee of hers was in the San Antonio area visiting her son, who was in the Army and stationed at Fort Sam Houston. This woman had her son bring her out to Mother's house to pay her respects. This was a woman who worked for minimum wage for mother 15 years earlier in Royal Oak, Michigan. After all those years she still had enough time, respect and energy to say hello and pass the time with her former employer.    I am truly sorry I cannot remember the womans name. I would like to thank her personally for her act of kindness and the trouble she went to. I would like to pay my respects to her.      This is an example of the effect that mother had on the people that worked for her. Can you imagine the effect she had on her family, the people she loved?      For many years I have been looking for the right moment to quote Lennon-McCartney from Abbey Road. "The love you take is equal to the love you make". May God bless you all. I am so grateful for knowing, learning from and loving Ruth Nagle, my mother.      Thank You - Paul Nagle



It was with joy too be able too know such a wonderful lady that i had the pleasure too know and work with her over the past 14mos.We had a lot of laughs and talks she will be greatly missed.Ruth was not only a friend she was family.Ruth i love you and will miss you.God got a special place for u.Tell Roland too take special care of you.



I'd be hard pressed to come up with a solitary soul that did so much for others the benefactors of which would include family and strangers. To be sure, she left an indelible footprint in my life and I have never forgotten the kindness she  rendered on my behalf, as she has done for so many.  I don't just miss her now, I have missed her over the many years when I didn't get to see her as often as I would have preferred. Good bye Ruth, you are missed but never forgotten and always loved.  David & Elaine



I had hoped to see Ruth again but time and distance have a way of interrupting wishes.  My best memories are from childhood with Ruth.  Whether it be showing up at the house in Needham with the shiny black Cadillacs, or inviting us up to the lake house in New Hampshire, to visits later at the house in Palmer, she always remembered us.  The house in Palmer was a fascination with its old New England oak and her Isabella Stewart Gardner home decorating.  These respites were dreamy breaks to unsettled youth and Ruth knew it.  I thank her for that.    In later years, I tromped across country on 14,000 mile trips with no schedule.  I would have Ruth’s address stuffed in my pocket.  Most people fade out of life as you grow up but I always remembered her and thought of these chances to try and visit.  Though it may have been six years since my last contact, I would call her out of the blue from a pay phone and she would drop everything and invite me over.  We would talk about “now and then” as she showed me all over the area in San Antonio or Austin (different trips respectively).    Ruth’s energy and optimism were always an inspiration to me.  She tempered it with a realism and forthrightness not often seen today.  Her talk was never surface fluff and this made her my kind of person.  One day we were on the River Walk; it was getting late.  I was 18 and having a hard time keeping up with her, my legs being worn out.  Ruth stopped and said, “Where are you going from here?”.  The ensuing conversation was such that I had a lot to accomplish and she wanted to know my plan.  This was done in a subtle manner.  She was not judgmental about direction but it was clear she would not accept sinking on thawing ice.  Competition and forward achievement were what she expected and she assured me I had the talent for it.  Not criticism just results.    It has been 13 years since I have seen Roland and Ruth.  There is not much left of the Needham we knew.  General Motors and their Cadillacs are all but extinct.  Time for cross-country trips has evaporated.  Youth has passed.  And Ruth is gone.    Mark, Erie, and Paul, I will miss Ruth but feel fortunate to have known her.    With sadness,    Jeff


OBITUARY

Ruth Estelle Nagle

September 23, 1919 – June 8, 2009

Weed Corley Fish Funeral Homes and Cremation Services

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