Gertrude "Trudy" McNicoll Eagle

Our mom, Trudy Eagle was reborn to a new life on Sunday May 5. She now joins her parents, Joseph and Gertrude McNicoll (Nana and Pop-pop) and our brother Peter who died at birth. Our mom is survived by her eight children, sixteen grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and by her sister Mary.

She was a member of the:

• Association of Operating Room Nurses (AORN)

• OSHER Lifelong Learning Program at Santa Clara University

• Red Hat Society

• St. Justin Ladies Guild where she was a Past-President many times over

Mom was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 30, 1934. Her family lived on Pittville Ave, in North Philadelphia, two blocks from “City Line”. Theirs was a working class neighborhood of well-kept row houses and they vacationed on the “Jersey shore”.

Her family belonged to Holy Angels Catholic Parish where she attended Holy Angels grammar school, and upon graduation moved on to Little Flower Girls Catholic High School. Her Dad was a railroad traffic manager for E.J. Levino Company. When Mom was a senior in high school her father was transferred to California and they arrived in Palo Alto in 1951. Mom finished high school at Notre Dame Belmont.

After graduation from Notre Dame, Mom was accepted into the Nursing program at Providence Hospital in Oakland, California, graduating in three years as a Registered Nurse (R.N.).

During her time in nursing school, she met Jim Eagle who was then in the U.S. Navy stationed at Oak Noll Naval Hospital in Oakland. Mom and Dad were married at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Palo Alto on September 10, 1955.

They began their family in Oakland, moved to Palo Alto in 1956 and then to Santa Clara in 1963 with the houses getting bigger as the family grew with the births of Rick, Chris, Cathy, Mary, Greg, Lynn, Dan and Rob. Much of family life revolved around the parish of St. Justin where we attended Mass and school. Both Mom and Dad were very involved with the Ladies Guild, the Stablemates (mens group), the school, and we developed strong friendships with other large families in the parish.

During those years Mom alternated between being a stay-at-home mom and working as an R.N., first at O’Conner Hospital and then at Kaiser Santa Clara. When she went back to Kaiser for her second “tour-of-duty” she went to work in the O.R. and worked as an operating room nurse and supervisor until she retired from Kaiser in 1995.

Mom was always a voracious reader, and in retirement, more time presented the opportunity to read even more books. She was about the busiest retired person you might ever see and had many diverse interests, but the biggest thing in her life was her family, her children, grand-children, and great grand-children. She was “Nana”, and what a lucky bunch our kids were to have her.

A devout Catholic, Mom was woman of great faith and I would say even greater compassion. This is one of the things that made her such an excellent nurse. She cared for you as a person.

COPD slowed her down in the last couple of years, limiting her ability to get out, but as she handled most adversity in her life, she never complained about it. She just let go of the things she could no longer do and focused on the things she could do. Most of all she loved us, with an unconditional motherly love that is beyond words and explanation. Mom taught us to love and how to be loved. What greater gift?

Through our sadness and tears at her loss, we wave goodbye and are comforted, that as she enters her new life in the Lord, there are just as many arms waving in welcome for her, and there is joy beyond measure.

We have her loving spirit with us always.

The children of Trudy Eagle