Marilyn Edna Brehm, 86, passed away on February 26, 2022, at her home in Phoenix, Ariz. She was born on September 25, 1935, in the family homestead on the Barton/Stafford County line, in Stafford County to Ernest and Alice (Batchman) Spacil. Marilyn was married to William Brehm on June 25, 1965, in St. Joseph Catholic Church in Ellinwood, Kan. He passed away on July 22, 1996.
Marilyn grew up in Ellinwood, Kan., graduating from Ellinwood High School. She received all her sacraments at St. Joseph Catholic Church, in Ellinwood, Kan., 64 year member of the Daughters of Isabella Immaculate Conception Circle #744, and a member of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Phoenix, Ariz. Marilyn was a lady of many hobbies and skills: bowling, playing cards, being an excellent cook and homemaker.
Survivors include, a son, William “Bill” Brehm, II, and his fiancé, Janet Mariscal, of Phoenix, Ariz.; a grandson, William “Billy” Brehm, III, of Phoenix, Ariz.; and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins. She was preceded in death by her husband; her parents; two brothers, Ronald and Raymond Spacil; and a sister, Norma Mae (Spacil) King.
She was preceded in death by brother, Ronald Spacil, brother, Raymond Spacil, sister, Norma Mae (Spacil) King.
There will be no visitation as cremation has taken place. Mass of Christian Burial will take place at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 8, 2022, at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Ellinwood, presided by Father Terrance Klein, preceded by the Daughters of Isabella Rosary at 9:30 a.m. Inurnment will follow at Lakin-Comanche Cemetery. Memorials can be made to Daughters of Isabella, in care of Bryant Funeral Home.
Death Sets a Thing Significant |
Funeral of Marilyn Brehm |
| Terrance Klein | Saint Joseph 8.X.2022 |
Death sets a thing significant. That’s the first line of a poem by Emily Dickinson. She expresses a truth of the faith, one well worth pondering as we remember Marilyn.
What happens to us in this life, more precisely, how we respond to what happens to us in this life, quite literally molds the life to come. All the details of a life, its small happenings, only receive their full significance, their final meaning, when life is over, when we present our lives to the Lord.
Here's the poem:
Death sets a thing significant
The eye had hurried by,
Except a perished creature
Entreat us tenderly
To ponder little workmanships
In crayon or in wool,
With “This was last her fingers did,”
Industrious until
The thimble weighed too heavy,
The stitches stopped themselves,
And then 't was put among the dust
Upon the closet shelves.
A book I have, a friend gave,
Whose pencil, here and there,
Had notched the place that pleased him,--
At rest his fingers are.
Now, when I read, I read not,
For interrupting tears
Obliterate the etchings
Too costly for repairs.
There’s something quite fitting in returning to this church, and to this community, where’s Marilyn’s life began. It’s part of our attempt to look again at a life, which has not only reached its terminus, but which has, in the life and light of the Lord, received its real significance.
Marilyn received all her sacraments in this church: Baptism, First Communion, and Confirmation. She married William Brehm on June 25, 1965, here in Saint Joseph’s. So, in returning here, we look again at the life she lived and at the blessing she was.
We pray that the Lord forgive her sins and grant her fellowship with all his saints. We also ask that the Lord grant us the grace to read again in the pages of her life, to ponder the notations she made. We will grieve, but we will also see something of the love of Christ, which is made manifest in the course of our lives.
Death sets a thing significant. So too do the sacraments. The night before he died, Jesus revealed the meaning of his death at the Last Supper. Now we celebrate that meal, that significance, entrusting Marilyn to him, praying again at an altar she knows so well. An altar where, once having gain her place, she will never forfeit. No, she will remain at the altar of the Lord. Interceding for us and glorifying the Lord, who gives meaning to our lives.
