Hello everyone. I hope you are well and keeping safe.
I just returned from the cemetery where we put to rest one of our parishioners, Gay McCreery. sadly, I never had the privilege of meeting her. Her devout husband Bill wrote a beautiful eulogy regarding her wonderful life. I don't think he would mind me sharing with you his powerful words of tribute to his soulmate.
A tribute to Gay McCreery by her husband Bill
Beautiful from without and beautiful from within. Words that I have heard before but words that are too appropriate not to be used here.
A woman of great beauty to the end and a woman of great love and goodness throughout her life.
I first met Gay at the Jersey Shore. I had gone there after my first year in law school to work in construction and make my fortune. When I got there, the job lasted only two days. I had no work and no place to stay. Somehow, I found a position at a local hotel where Gay was working.
I could not get Gay to notice me for most of the Summer, but over time, things worked out and in 1960 we got married in East Orange, New Jersey, where Gay lived and was teaching school.
Eventually our family moved to Scarsdale where we raised our four children who went to the local schools. As our children grew, Gay became interested in civic matters in the Village. She particularly focused on the Scarsdale Women’s Club. She twice became its president.
During Gay’s initial term, the big initiative was air conditioning the Club so that it could be rented out during the Summer. You might think that this would have been universally applauded, but it was not and had to be implemented over objection.
Gay’s hands on approach was demonstrated when on a daily basis, she took an air conditioning machine to a local auto body shop to be painted to the required color.
Following her first term, Gay and her friend Linda Blair, who was the head of the State Interior Decorators Association, sponsored a “Show House” for the decrepit Club building. This entailed 28 different designers, each decorating a room or other space in the building. The result was spectacular. The Club was revitalized and remains so to this day.
For the last few years, Gay has been staying at the Ambassador on Saxon Wood Road where she received excellent care.
It was my joy to see her every day.
Gay was always a very good person, kind, caring, helpful, a good friend. She was a great and beloved wife, mother and grandmother.
How much I love her and will miss her can not be measured.
My only consolation is that she has made Heaven a nicer place because she is there.