PAUL BOTHWELL, MARCH, 1941 - JULY, 2016
Paul Bothwell 1941-2016
“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and
take you to myself so that where I am you also may be.”
From my homily at the funeral Mass: We all share our condolences with Ellie, with Bob and John
and Don and all of Paul’s relatives and friends. We praise God for this opportunity to be
together in our sorrow....
When Paul and I were both in middle school, Paul and his
family moved to Horace Avenue in Abington just a stone’s throw from where I had
lived since birth. We attended the
parochial school here at Our Lady Help of Christians and after graduation went
to different high schools, Paul to LaSalle College High School and myself to
St. Joseph’s Prep. But during that time
we rode our bikes around town, played some rough games of ball on a nearby vacant
lot and listened to many a Phillies game while playing cards together. We also enjoyed getting into trouble with
other boys in the eighth grade. On one
particularly beautiful spring day we refused to return to class after noon
recess. Paul and I got a special audience with the eighth grade nun after that
prank. Later while in high school there
was joy-riding with an older friend who had a car.
But in public we appeared more pious when serving Mass together
in the auditorium structure where we gathered before this Church was built. Despite the different obligations of our high
schools, we continued serving Mass together.
As a younger kid I had other friends in my immediate neighborhood but
they were Lutherans, Episcopalians and Presbyterians. In those days I was not sure that I could
count on them. But Father Shallow could
count on Paul and me to serve Mass and we could count on each other. No one was surprised that we entered seminary
at the same time, myself to the Jesuit novitiate and Paul to St. Charles to
prepare for our continued service in the Church. Despite our separate ways later in life --God
leading us along different paths, Paul to a loving marriage-- service in the
Church dominated the life paths that we each chose, Paul and his dear wife Ellie fulfilling their
service in all of the local parishes wherever they lived.....
When they returned here to Philadelphia last year I did not imagine
that Paul’s time with us would be so short.
I looked forward to having them visit me at the Jesuit Center in
Wernersville and even to going to a baseball game with them. These things never happened. But it did happen that the two of them
became well known as a strong and faithful couple at Simpson House willing to
help others and to assist in contributing to that faith community just as
they had done wherever they lived.....
All of us, Ellie and his brothers and other relatives especially,
have memories of Paul. And we hold on to these memories today as a
way of consoling us in our grief at the loss of a husband, a brother, an uncle,
a cousin, a friend whom we loved. We
want, also, to consider how GOD remembers Paul, Paul’s own service on the altar,
Paul’s own study and practice of prayer and of faith, Paul’s generous sharing of life and service
with Ellie, Paul’s care for those in his
family and for others. These memories, even
when some detail is lost can console us.
But in God’s heart these memories are vivid and strong, lively detailed images
united with the images of God’s Son Jesus.
As God raises Jesus from the
dead, so, too, God’s life-giving memory raises Paul to be with his Lord Jesus.
