March 28, 2002
Richard A. "Dick" Lindgren, 73, a resident of South Yarmouth, died on Holy Thursday 2002 in Harwich MA after a prolonged illness with Parkinson's disease.
Dick was born in New York City. He attended Fordham University for two years where he excelled as a swimmer. After training as a Carmelite, he joined the order in 1951 He was ordained to the priesthood in the Carmelite Order in June 1957.
He taught in New York for a year before requesting an assignment to the Philippine missions. He served in the Philippines for three years before being recalled by his superior to become the director of recruitment for the Carmelites on the Eastern Seaboard.
In this capacity, he was also elected to serve on the board of directors for the Eastern Association of Vocation Directors.
He left the priesthood and married Phyllis in 1972.
He founded, organized and developed the Southwest Boston Senior Services Center. The center was headquartered in Roslindale during his tenure from 1971 to 1984. He resigned his post as executive director because of Parkinson's disease.
Dick was especially known for his sensitivity and concern for seniors and their physical, financial and spiritual needs.
He served for a brief period in the social services department of the city of Boston, prior to being chosen in 1972 by the Faulkner Hospital as director of community relations.
While serving in this capacity, he saw a pressing need for services to the elderly in southwest Boston.
With the encouragement of the Faulkner Hospital, he opened a small office in Roslindale for himself and a part-time secretary. From there, he organized and coordinated efforts to focus the community on elder affairs. His talents for drawing people together and his organizing efforts were rewarded with funding for programs, staffing and development.
Mayor Kevin White became aware of the growth of Southwest Boston Senior Services and requested him to serve on the Mayor's Council for Elder Affairs.
Southwest Boston Senior Services gradually became an entity apart from the Faulkner Hospital and although Dick served as its executive director, he retained his affiliation with the Faulkner Hospital as a liaison to the board of directors.
Because of his efforts, dedication and example of leadership for senior citizens and their needs he was chosen in 1984 by the New England Medical Center as Man of the Year.
Surviving besides his wife are three brothers, Thomas, Robert and Donald; and many nieces and nephews.
Dick was a special person and his calm, caring nature attracted all who came in contact with him. All feel enriched by his presence and example. Rest in peace Dick
EULOGY FOR DICK LINDGREN -- APRIL 2, 2002 ST. PIUS X CHURCH -- YARMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS DELIVERED BY CHRISTOPHER RUGGERI
In 2 Corinthians Ch. 5, vs. 4 Paul says: "While we live in this earthly tent we groan with a feeling of oppression . . . we want to have the heavenly body put on over us so that what is mortal will be transformed by life."
Phyllis, Tom, Don and Bob --- and, although Bob is not here today physically, I am certain he is with us in prayer and spirit, for he was here for Dick and Phyllis in time of need for the past eight years -- all Dick's nephews and nieces and his very special friends; please know that I am both honored and humbled to have been asked by Phyllis to deliver this eulogy and I hope and pray I can get through it. So, I?m begging you, Dick, to help me because I need your help now!
Richard (Simon) Lindgren, my dear friend; your beloved husband, Phyllis; your devoted and caring brother; Tom, Don and Bob; and an affectionate and concerned uncle for his nieces and nephews, was a man who "marched to a different drummer".
As I reflected on the life of my very dear friend -- my buddy -- during holy week, words and symbols sprang to my mind and heart that sent me scurrying for gospel texts suitable to the life and time of Richard Lindgren. Such things as oppression, courage, faith and Dick's death on the Passover feast of Holy Thursday to Christ's appearance after the resurrection to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus were inspirational for what they symbolize to me in the life of Dick Lindgren.
Dick in his own quiet way, preaching -- not so much in words -- but by example and deeds always sought answers to oppression; oppression caused by unjust structures that dehumanize. His work in the Philippines was about liberating poor peasants from an oppression that made them think of themselves as less than other human beings thereby denying them a dignity that was rightfully theirs. His ministry to the elderly sprang from a concern for their physical, financial and spiritual well-being.
Please look at this book I'm holding for your view. The cover is badly worn and tattered, the pages are frayed and it appears that it has been read and re-read. Several years ago I asked Dick to give me something as a remembrance of him. He told Phyllis to give me this book -- and perhaps you don't remember that Phyllis -- entitled The Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire. Although the book is worn, tattered and frayed, it is full of challenging thoughts and substance on the inside, just like my good friend and spiritual brother Dick Lindgren who lived with a weakened, battered and bruised body but what spiritual depth on the inside - in this man's soul!
Listen for a moment to some of Dick's random underlining which I have chosen from this book and visualize for a moment a man not taken up by status or privilege but one thoroughly imbued with causes of oppression and the struggles for liberation: . . .trusting in people is the indispensable condition for revolutionary change. . . . Conversion to the people requires a profound rebirth. . . .Liberation is a praxis: the action and reflection of men upon their world to transform it. . . .Human existence cannot be silent, nor can it be nourished by false words, but only by true words, with which men transform the world. To exist humanly is to name the world to change it. . . . . .The role of revolutionary leadership. . .is to consider seriously, even as they act, the reasons for any attitude of mistrust on the part of the people, and to seek out true avenues of communion with them, ways of helping the people, to help themselves critically perceive the reality which oppresses them.
He even struggled for liberation from the sickness that "oppressed" him. And actually, his strong and indomitable will to try to be independent rather than dependent kept him going. Did this indomitable will and his struggles for independence get him into trouble? It sure did
--Like the time our group - 5 couples - went on a retreat in Vermont and Dick rose at 5:00 a.m. to cook bacon when a loud tumultuous sound occurred waking Stuart who found Dick in the kitchen in a mop-up operation of the bacon and grease that he dropped on the floor with the frying pan.
--Like the time he hitch-hiked from his home in Deb's Hills to his brother Bob's to see his nephews causing Phyllis to be beside herself wondering where he was. --Like the time he went out of the nursing home at 12:00 or 1:00 a.m. in his wheel chair causing the alarm to go off and the police to rush to Cranberry Pointe.
--Like the time I was delegated to sit with Dick while Peg and Phyllis went shopping and though I thought Dick had left the TV room to go to the bathroom, he had gone to the kitchen with his walker to make pop-corn. All of a sudden I smell fire and smoke is coming from the kitchen; and then I find Dick with a fire extinguisher putting out the fire on the stove where he started making pop-corn. What a mess we had with the substance from the fire extinguisher all over the wall and stove. But we cleaned everything up before the ladies arrived and Dick said, "don't tell Phyllis what happened.? But of course, they smelled the smoke when they entered the house!
--Or, like the time at Mike and Jayne Johnson's house when we were getting ready for dinner and Mike told Dick to sit in the family room until everything is arranged and we will come to help him up the stairs. But Dick, preferred to manage the stairs himself and when he grabbed the hand rail, he fell backwards taking the hand-rail off the wall with him. We heard a loud bang and there?s Dick, smiling on the floor with the handrail in his hands! Verse 7 of 2 Corinthians Ch. 5 says, "Our life is a matter of faith not sight". And Dick's life was a matter of believing in things he could not see nor understand. Like Job of the Old Testament, he couldn't understand why a God whom he loved could treat him so badly but also like Job of the Old Testament he remained a faithful suffering servant to his God with whom someday he would rendezvous. While in the nursing home -- and when he was still able -- it was his faith that moved him to minister to others who were nearing death. One time Peg and I went to visit him and we found him in the room of a dying patient. We remained outside the door watching him and there was Dick, moving his wheel chair close to the bed calling the person's name and then I saw him raise his hand, bless the man with the sign of the cross, and take water from a paper cup and moisten his lips. A priestly man still ministering to the oppressed even while he was moving towards a more debilitating stage in his own life. -- What faith and what a remarkable scene, seeing Dick giving hope to the poor in spirit!
Paul says "we are full of courage and would much prefer to leave our home in the body and be at home with the Lord". In spite of Parkinson's disease Dick had remarkable courage. Courage in the face of adversity! A courage that enabled him to face death, yes, and probably even yearn for it to leave his home in that weakened body to be at home with the Lord. Mike Johnson called me on the phone from Florida and during our conversation he said, "boy, did he have courage. More courage than I would ever have. And, he was courageous where we, his friends were weak." Mike asked him, "Dick, do you think of death?" He answered, "Yes, I do and I'm not afraid to die". Could this man have seen something we didn't" Could he have experienced something we haven't" Had God already touched his spirit so that he could courageously face the final separation from this life? I don't have the answers and I'm sure no one here has the answers. But I am certain of one thing from Dick's separation from us ---I will be praying to him --- I will be begging him to give me some of that same courage and faith!!
It sounds like I'm talking about a man without faults. Talking about some sort of angel. And an angel he was not! And he was not without faults just as each of us here is not without faults. Could he be frustrating to Phyllis? --( Maybe you should answer that, Phyllis!) He certainly could. He was not easy to handle but then he would say, "why does anyone think they have to handle me anyway?" His brother, Bob, was also the brunt of many of Dick's frustrations. But Dick loved his wife and brothers, nieces and nephews with an everlasting love. A day in his life took on new meaning when he knew Tom or Don would be up to visit him.
Perhaps Dick looked forward to leaving his home and body and be at home with the Lord so that he could be free. One time when I arrived at the nursing home Dianne stopped me and said, "try to talk to him about not getting out of bed without someone there to assist him". I remember saying, "Dick you have to try to accept this condition and I know it's hard but you have to wait for someone to help you out of bed". Dick responded, "it's easy for you to say that, Chris, because you're free but I am in prison. I'm imprisoned in this nursing home. I'm imprisoned in this room -- all I have is this 4' by 6' bed as my own -- and I'm imprisoned in my own body". I had no answer but now Dick can finally say "Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty I'm free at last".
So, Dick was ready to leave and be at home with the Lord. What a truly remarkable event -- maybe it's a minor miracle, I don't know -- that the Lord God called him home on the same day of the Passover Meal when Jesus tells his disciples to take and eat this is my body and this is my blood.
Dick and I first met over 35 years ago as Vocation Directors on the Eastern Seaboard -- he a Carmelite, I a Franciscan -- his name was then Simon. -- Isn?t it wonderful, remarkable, beautiful, that he should be called by the Lord on Holy Thursday, to be with the Lord in his glory on Easter. Listen again to Luke's words describing the joy of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus when they recognize Jesus the Christ. Words that Dick knew well because he knew Jesus in the breaking of the bread: "Stay with us; the day is almost over and it is getting dark." So he went in to stay with them. He sat down to eat with them, took the bread, and said the blessing; then he broke the bread and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him. . . . . they got up at once and went back to Jerusalem [to the upper room], where they found the eleven disciples gathered together with the others and saying, "The Lord is risen indeed! HE HAS APPEARED TO SIMON! -- He appeared to our own Richard Lindgren, -- Simon Lindgren, whom I believe the Lord loved as much or more than we did ourselves! A beloved husband, a caring loving brother, a devoted uncle a spiritual brother and dear friend who took joy in "living for others". Could we not say the same of him that was said of Robert Kennedy?
"Some people see things as they are and ask why, but he saw things that never were and asked why not?"
If you're on the beach this summer look at the ocean and see Dick swimming there with freedom and liberation. Reflect on this unassuming, self-effacing man of God and the legacy he has left us. His struggle to be fully Christian in the modern world in imitation of the beatitudes and to be a lightning rod for the oppressed and the weak of this world; his courage and faith; his struggle for his own personal freedom and liberation and, finally, we ought to pray to him to inspire us "to take the road less traveled because that makes all the difference".
GOOD BYE MY GOOD FRIEND. PRAY FOR ME!
