[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 142 (Monday, September 24, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1961]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       EULOGY FOR SADIE MAE GROVE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MARCY KAPTUR

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 24, 2007

  Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, Rev. Bishop, it is a privilege to be 
invited to honor and celebrate the life of Sadie Mae Grove at her 
homegoing today from Mt. Pilgrim Baptist Church, Toledo, Ohio, 
September 21, 2007. Thank you all for allowing me to participate. In 
this church, we can all feel the love she shared with us as we comfort 
one another at this time of great bereavement.
  Once in a while, human beings gain a glimpse of heaven in the people 
we meet. Sadie Grove was such a person.
  She was loving, joyful, strong, kind, generous. And she was wise. To 
her beloved daughter Louise, lifelong friend Ada Mae McQueen, chosen 
brothers Freddie and Booker, precious granddaughters Natasha and 
Cassandra, great-grandchildren Tyrin and Deiondre, blessed family, 
friends and colleagues--our community extends its deepest sympathy. 
Grief is such a heavy load. Believe me, as I know from personal 
experience, Sadie's strength will help carry you now. Rev. Bishop, 
Sadie drew enormous strength in knowing you would help carry her home 
today. She is grateful that we are all here at this moment.
  In life, some persons are of such strength and texture, the power of 
their personhood sets a standard of character, not just for their 
family, but for the broader community. Sadie was a woman of character. 
Our community has been shaped and imbued with her nature--smiling, 
caring, building, nurturing others, all of us--a woman of deep faith, 
abiding hope, and selfless charity. In some faiths, a smile is regarded 
as a charity. Surely, angels of all persuasions welcome Sadie today as 
we recall her welcoming smile, extending from ear to ear. She gave us 
her warm, encouraging hugs, and her gusto, guts, and grace.
  Sadie did not lead an easy life. Yet she took joy and gave joy in her 
journey. She was a woman from the working class of people who had to 
make her own way. Can you imagine the back-breaking discipline it took 
for a woman to work for 30 years in the old Jeep paint shop, not the 
new one . . . on her feet, day in and day out, many times working 
overtime, working with mainly men when she began. She had to be one of 
the few women with that experience. Then, due to her skills and 
personality, she moved to the UAW job training facility at the Jeep 
unit of the United Auto Workers Local 12. It was there I first met her 
with now Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken. Imagine all the lives 
she touched, helping people transition from auto manufacturing to other 
fields as the bad economy that has plagued us yielded more terminations 
and layoffs. She assisted her co-workers, day after day. How hard it 
must have been to draw the strength to touch each life, one after the 
other, to give people hope. She helped lead them to a new road forward. 
That is what Sadie did.
  Sadie effectively connected to the world beyond her family--she was a 
full citizen. She embraced local, state, and national politics. I can't 
remember a time when Sadie wasn't there--at NAACP, the Fraternal Order 
of Police, The Perry Burroughs Democratic Club, the United Auto 
Workers, the Elks, and as a steward of her cherished church, Mt. 
Pilgrim. She was a member of the Senior Usher Board #1. I thought 
number one meant she was the most senior, for we in Congress respect 
seniority, but in any case she was #1 to all of us. She was a pillar of 
this church. Where would our community be without this church 
community? Imagine Toledo without this church. There would be a huge 
vacuum here. She helped fill that space. I can still see her scurrying 
to greet me whenever I visited this church. For how many other visitors 
did she do that? She always waited for me in that back hall. It was 
there she first shared with me her dream for the housing development 
for this church and she lived to know it was completed. The treasurer 
of your church just told me that the $1.7 million addition the church 
accomplished was to have been paid in 15 years. Sadie headed the 
stewardship committee, and the loan was paid off in 5 years and 7 
months. Yes, you and we, could depend on Sadie.

  Sadie made us strong just by being with us. How blessed we all have 
been to have known her and shared her life. May her family, friends, 
and our entire community be grateful for her life and, in her memory, 
may you be given Godspeed in the days and years ahead.
  A poem by Nancy Wood entitled ``Earth Prayers'' brings us comfort as 
we honor the life of Sadie Grove:

     A long time I have lived with you
     And now we must be going
     Separately to be together.

     Perhaps I shall be the wind
     To blur your smooth waters
     So that you do not see your face too much.

     Perhaps I shall be the star
     To guide your uncertain wings so that you have direction in 
           the night.

     Perhaps I shall be the fire
     To separate your thoughts
     So that you do not give up.

     Perhaps I shall be the rain
     To open up the earth
     So that your seed may fall.

     Perhaps I shall be the stream
     To play a song on the rock
     So that you are not alone.

     Perhaps I shall be a new mountain
     So that you always have a home.

                          ____________________