WILFRED KLUEMPER 1919 - 2007Wilfred "Bill" Kluemper passed away this morning around 5:20 a.m. Mary Jo called around 6:00 with the news. It's a very sad day for all who knew him. His health had deteriorated so much that he was taking large amounts of morphine just so he wouldn't feel pain, and even with that, he still had some pain. I haven't talked to Mary Jo myself, but I'm hoping he passed peacefully in his sleep.
I got up this morning and searched Google online for the name "Wilfred Kluemper." I found a site that showed him as having graduated from Ireland high school in Indiana in 1936 and playing basketball, and I also found a site from The Catholic Foundation of Southwestern Indiana that has a picture of Bill and Leona and is kind of an interview. I guess it was done for Precious Blood or something. Anyway, as I read about his life, I thought, wow, he has seen it all and been through it all, the Depression, WWII, the loss of a newborn baby to name a few. While in Germany, he experienced a concentration camp called Buchenwell where he said that 56,000 people died from starvation and 21,000 others were just skin and bones. I can't even wrap my brain around seeing something like that. The first thought that I had this morning when we got the news was: Finally he's with his mother, who died when Bill was 20, I think, and he talked about her every time I was around him. That really made an impact on his life, losing her at such a young age.
We will be leaving for Jasper on Thursday and coming back after the service on Saturday probably. Keep Leona and the whole family in your prayers and thoughts. Bill and Leona had been married 62 years, and I know she will miss him dearly, as will all his family. Bill was a loving husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather. He was a great man and had a great life!
I got up this morning and searched Google online for the name "Wilfred Kluemper." I found a site that showed him as having graduated from Ireland high school in Indiana in 1936 and playing basketball, and I also found a site from The Catholic Foundation of Southwestern Indiana that has a picture of Bill and Leona and is kind of an interview. I guess it was done for Precious Blood or something. Anyway, as I read about his life, I thought, wow, he has seen it all and been through it all, the Depression, WWII, the loss of a newborn baby to name a few. While in Germany, he experienced a concentration camp called Buchenwell where he said that 56,000 people died from starvation and 21,000 others were just skin and bones. I can't even wrap my brain around seeing something like that. The first thought that I had this morning when we got the news was: Finally he's with his mother, who died when Bill was 20, I think, and he talked about her every time I was around him. That really made an impact on his life, losing her at such a young age.
We will be leaving for Jasper on Thursday and coming back after the service on Saturday probably. Keep Leona and the whole family in your prayers and thoughts. Bill and Leona had been married 62 years, and I know she will miss him dearly, as will all his family. Bill was a loving husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather. He was a great man and had a great life!
Here is a poem I found online that I thought was sweet.
GOD SAW YOU
by Adam Males
God saw you getting tired, when a cure was not to be, so
He wrapped his arms around you and whispered "Come to me."
You didn't deserve what you went through,
You didn't deserve what you went through,
so He gave you rest.
God's garden must be beautiful, He only takes the best.
And when I saw you sleeping so peaceful and free from pain,
I could not wish you back to suffer that again.
God's garden must be beautiful, He only takes the best.
And when I saw you sleeping so peaceful and free from pain,
I could not wish you back to suffer that again.
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