Patricia Marie Steckler

after a short bout with cancer August 14. The world is diminished with her passing, but her

memory will be eternal in the hearts of family, friends, children, and the lives of many she

touched but never met personally. Throughout her life, Pat was quick to hold an infant and charm

any child.

“Mom was a caretaker, a natural-born giver whose siblings, children, grandchildren, and great

grandchildren were essentially her great joy and life,” son Eddie Steckler says.

She also was willing to do anything for anyone, says daughter Lisa Wright of Chicago. “Mom

touched a lot of lives and meant a great deal to many people. So many of them either visited,

called, or texted, or sent her cards or flowers during the short time she was in the care facility.

She had all of that in her heart when she died.”

Patricia Marie was born during World War II to Leo and Marie Ostdick in Topeka, Kansas, while

her father was stationed with the U.S. Air Corp in Ogden, Utah. Although Leo had no leave time,

a sympathetic Red Cross official arranged medical leave for him to see wife and child in Kansas.

During the rest of his service, Pat lived with her mom near the bases he was assigned or with

grandparents in Kansas, where she had scads of cousins nearby to shepherd. In 1944, her first

brother, Edward, was born in Ogden.

After Lee was discharged in 1945, the family lived in Fresno, Bakersfield, and then Anaheim,

California, in view of the vast orange groves that eventually gave way to the Disneyland theme

park. Pat welcomed two more siblings, Diane and Jim, during this time. The family spent a short

stint in Denver before moving to Villa Park, Illinois, where Pat finished her high school years in

an idyllic small community on the outskirts of Chicago.

“She was the perfect big sister,” Diane says. “And I thought she was the prettiest girl in the

world.”

“She really was a teen heartthrob at Blessed Sacrament in Denver, and then at St. Francis High

School in Wheaton (about 10 miles from Villa Park),” Jim says.

She welcomed two other brothers, John and Michael, in Illinois. She would serve as a second

mother to them both.

The family moved to Dallas, Texas, in 1960. While Pat was working at a dress shop, Estelle

Steckler introduced her to her son Robert. They began dating amid a turbulent time in the

family’s history. When Leo died of a heart attack in 1963, Pat became even more of what Marie

called her “excellent right hand,” stepping in to help in several areas, including much of the care

of her two youngest brothers.

Pat and Bob married in the summer of 1964. They moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, where Eddie

was born in 1965. From there, Bob’s sales business took him to Oklahoma City, where Lisa’s

birth completed their family. They enjoyed their time there.

The family moved to Plano in 1977 when Eddie and Lisa were 12 and 10. Although you would

be hard to find anyone less interested in sports, Pat never missed a game during Eddie’s long

involvement with baseball (a familial loyalty that would extend to all her eventual

grandchildren’s endeavors — lacrosse and soccer — as well).

“Mom was always there to fulfill a need.” Lisa says of these years. “She was the home room

mom, PTA board member, and Brownie and Girl Scout leader. She kept the official score book at

baseball games, and always made sure there were drinks to be had.

“She loved ice cream. Occasionally, when dad was traveling, we got to have a banana split at

Braum’s for dinner. On other weekend nights, dad would take us for a drive around the lake after

a stop at Braum’s, where mom would enjoy at least four to five scoops in her cup. She was also

known to enjoy many Dairy Queen Blizzards over the years.”

Eddie has many meaningful memories of his mom, one of which was when “Dad was struggling

through a career change, and we were struggling financially,” he says. “Mom had no real skill

business set, so she rolled up her sleeves and did what she could do. She cleaned houses, not

glamorous work by any means. She worked hard, many times cleaning two to three houses a day.

She kept the family afloat.”

Pat and Bob served as Engage Encounter and Marriage Circle counselors through their church,

hosting Marriage Encounter Socials in their home and sharing their life lessons with young

couples for quite a few years.

After Lisa graduated from high school, Pat and Bob took ballroom and country-western dance

lessons, and often went dancing. Pat took great joy on the dance floor. They had a rock-solid

marriage, and showed great support for friends and family, emotionally, spiritually, and

financially when warranted.

Both Eddie and Lisa married and had children, and Pat became first a wonderful grandmother,

and eventually, great grandmother. She cherished them all, and each one of them knew they were

loved. That love took many forms and turns.

During grandchild Trevor’s first day of third grade in a Plano school, Pat walked up to his

teacher and introduced herself as Trevor’s grandmother and the teacher’s new best friend. She

lived up to the promise, volunteering for Tuesday and Thursday afternoons in Allison

Yarbrough’s class that year and continuing to do so for 21 years until the COVID-19 virus

outbreak made it impossible.

“She was amazing,” Yarbrough says. “She worked with the kids; she helped other teachers in my

grade. Everyone would laugh about how when I had to change grade levels that they didn’t care

about losing me, but they were sad to see Miss Pat go because she would follow me.”

When Bob was diagnosed with brain cancer and engaged in a painful journey, Pat was there

every step of the way. “When Dad became too much for her to handle on her own, he had to go

to a care facility. Even while he was there, she rarely left his side, running home briefly to

shower and get her more clothes for several months. Her love and dedication were amazing.”

While Bob was ill, a local Shawl Ministry representative dropped off one of their Trinity shawls

for Bob. (The group knits shawls, which are blessed and delivered to the suffering.)

After Bob’s death in 2004, Pat attended one of the ministry’s meetings, originally intending to

make a couple of shawls as a pay-it-forward-thank-you for their kindness with Bob. She kept

coming back. The group estimates it has distributed more than 10,000 shawls since its inception

in 2003; Pat knitted between nine and 12 shawls a month ever since attending her first meeting,

accounting for more than 1,500 of those shawls, each delivered with a card bearing her name to

people she would never meet.

“She would arrive with a suitcase on wheels, stuffed with at least eight shawls or more, and she

would unpack the shawls and refill the suitcase with skeins of yarn to create more shawls,” says

former longtime coordinator Tish Allen. Current coordinator Margarita Mills delivered a

Ministry Shawl to Pat during the last week of her life, shortly after daughter Lisa had delivered

the last 10 shawls Pat had knitted before going into the care facility.

For someone who never claimed to be athletic, over the years Pat was sneaky adventurous. She

went on hot air balloon rides, including participating in the launch of balloons at the

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta one year with brother John. She zip-lined 150 feet

above a New Hampshire forest with friends. She clambered over slippery boulders at the base of

a waterfall on all fours in Yosemite National Park, greatly alarming her brother Jim in the

process. She wandered the wilderness of Australia with brother Mike and got up-close views of

incredible wild animals in South Africa with three of her siblings and extended family. Until

COVID, Pat continued to go out dancing with friends. She loved to go out to lunch or to the

movies with friends and family. She brought life and a smile into every room. She traveled with

friends and went on cruises with her sister. And she could milk a birthday into a month of small

celebrations like no one else.

A tremendous light may have left the room when she passed August 14, but the glow of Pat

Steckler still burns bright in everyone she touched before it left.

Pat was preceded in death by her parents, Leo and Marie; husband Robert; and brother Ed. She is

survived by son Eddie Steckler and daughter-in-law Pam of Gainesville, Texas, granddaughters

Katie and Sarah Steckler; and daughter Lisa Wright and son-in-law Eric Wright of Chicago,

Illinois, and grandson Trevor Wright; great grandchildren Lexi, Jack, and Logan; sister Diane

Mayfield of Cleburne, Texas; brother Jim Ostdick of San Juan Bautista, California; brother John

H. Ostdick of Dallas; and brother Mike Ostdick of Margate Queensland, Australia; and a number

of cousins, nephews, and nieces.

A graveside Memorial Service will be held at 2:15 pm, Friday September 23, 2020, at DFW

National Cemetery, 2000 Mountain Creek Pkwy, Dallas, TX 75211.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to either The Shawl Ministry, St.

Elizabeth Ann Seton, Att. Margarita Mills, 2700 W. Spring Creek Pkwy., Plano, TX 75023; or

VNA Texas Hospice, Palliative Care & Meals on Wheels, 1420 W. Mockingbird Ln, Suite 700,

Dallas, TX 75247, or via its website www.vnatexas.org/.