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This Book of Memories memorial website is designed to be a permanent tribute paying tribute to the life and memory of Joanne Jicha. It allows family and friends a place to re-visit, interact with each other, share and enhance this tribute for future generations. We are both pleased and proud to provide the Book of Memories to the families of our community.

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Phillip A Magness

God's blessings and peace to all who mourn the passing of our dear Joanne. Though I only had the joy of attending the same church with her for a little less than a year, she told me several times, "I will never forget you." She never did, either. And I will never forget her. How could I? The first time I met her, just three weeks into my brief tenure at Tinley-Park, she came up to me and said, "You've been hurt, haven't you." And, yes, I had been hurt, having come to Trinity after being forced out of a ministry elsewhere in Chicagoland I had poured my heart and soul into over the previous 13 years. Stunned by how perceptive and frank she was, I just said, "Yes, I have," to which she reassuringly responded, "It's OK. I've been hurt, too." And so that day I made one of my first friends in Tinley Park. Over the next 9 months, she was a constant encouragement to me and to my family. Alas, Trinity was not a place at which I was destined to stay: within a year I received a call from a parish in Oklahoma more aligned with my interests and ministry philosophy. She sent several cards and letters to me after I left Tinley Park for Broken Arrow. I wrote to her as well and was able to connect with her while she was in the hospital before she died. I sang "All for Christ I Have Forsaken," after which she asked me to sing "Be Still My Soul," and to play a piano improvisation on that hymn's tune (FINLANDIA, by Jean Sibelius). We then prayed Psalms 30 and 41 together before concluding with the Nunc Dimittis from DS III, which she sang with me. She commented on how wonderful that was and lamented not getting to sing that and other parts of the Divine Service, saying "they don't do that anymore." I encouraged her that she'd be getting to sing Spiritual songs to her heart's content in heaven, to which she replied, "I know." :) We do sing the liturgy at my congregation here in Oklahoma and so I thought of her again as we sang the Sanctus this morning. No, I'll never forget you either, Joanne. RIP
Sunday November 26, 2017 at 4:25 pm
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