Lois Celsi

Lois Bernadine Celsi (nee Potter) was born in Des Moines, May 7, 1922. She quietly passed from this world Friday, June 22, 2012.

She was born to Ray and Lillie (Youst) Potter. She had a sister, Helen Amadeo (Don) who with her parents preceded her in death, and a brother Raymond (Barbara) Potter.

She married her childhood sweetheart, Byron Richard (Dick) Moon in 1942. Together they had four children: Nancy Moon, Byron Michael (Mike) Moon (Shirley), Christopher Robert (Chris) Moon, and Marc Sterling Moon (Jill). Also surviving are grandchildren: Meagan Wortock (Jason), Alex Moon (Julie), Michelle Fritz (Justin), Jennifer Moon (Abbey Hurysz) and Gus Moon, and great-grandchildren: Henry, Hanna and Hallie Wortock, Zoey and Nora Moon, and Katie and Isaac Fritz.

Lois was a homemaker much of her life. After forty-two years together, Dick passed in 1984. In 1987 she wed Charles (Charlie) Celsi and they were together until his passing in 2010.

Lois had a pragmatic, yet positive attitude about life. She always tried to accept what happened and make the best of it; she kept engaged with people and the world around her. She was always an independent woman, but suffered a stroke in December 2011, leading to her moving to Ramsey Village. There, facing the loss of that independence, she was an example of how to face adversity with acceptance, grace, and dignity.

Lois was good at cards and seemed to have more luck on her side than most. She did her best not to gloat. She was an avid reader, enjoyed a good movie, and good conversation most of all. She had a fine sense of humor, and an easy ability to laugh about herself.

She was a great friend. She was a peacemaker. She had a real fascination with people; curiosity not rooted in gossip, but regard. She was her family’s historian with an encyclopedic memory of extended family, neighbors, colleagues, and coworkers. When she got to know somebody, would remember his or her situation, and make a connection that showed how she valued him or her as an individual. While at Ramsey Village she displayed genuine interest in the people who lived there, but even more interest in the ones who cared for her.

Lois had a party on the occasion of her ninetieth birthday in May. To her delight, sixty people came to celebrate. Reflecting on this later, Lois said, “I wish I could have invited more.” They would have shown up as well. She was a woman who never made too much of herself, but always much of others, and in that way was to those of us who knew her and loved her, something of a giant.

In these last years she would reflect, “I’ve had a good life. Momma and Daddy loved us and took good care of us. I had two wonderful husbands, and great children I’m proud of. I’ve been lucky.” As sister, mother, grandmother and friend, we have been more than lucky to have known and loved her.

There will be a visitation at Hamilton’s Funeral Home at East 6th and Lyon on Monday, June 25, from 5 to 7 pm. A celebratory Mass and memorial will be held at 10:30 am, Tuesday, June 26, at St. Joseph Catholic Church, 3300 Easton Blvd. in Des Moines, with a reception to follow. Her cremated remains will be buried at a later time with the family in attendance.

Memorials can be directed to the Animal Rescue League, the Salvation Army, or St. Joseph.

www.HamiltonsFuneralHome.com

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