In Remembrance: Josie Petermeier

Josie Petermeier, funeral homily by Rev. Linda Wilcox

Josie was a fierce, committed and passionate woman. She tackled everything with a spirit of adventure. These qualities came through in her marriage of 40 years to her husband Jerry and to raising her boys, Ben and Dan. She was a fierce “mama bear” for them and gave them the stability every child needs. She was involved in so many of their activities including: home schooling, boy scouts, camping trips, little league and soccer.

Every night she read to the kids – Harry Potter was a big part of this. Jerry commented that she raised the bar of motherhood as high as it could go.

Family said that it was fun to watch Josie’s hobbies over the years. She was in the Scouts for 15 years, mostly in leadership positions. During that time she made a lasting mark on many lives. She helped special needs kids get their badges. She told me that when she worked as lunch lady at school she made sure she knew the name of every single kid that came through the line. Some of her other endeavors included: family genealogy, geocaching, riding her scooter, and getting a Ham radio license.

How she loved her scooter and being practical and saving gas. She often did grocery shopping on it, fitting 2 gallons of milk under the seat and a bag or two of groceries on the floor between her feet. Once she even tried to get the huge package of Costco paper towels on there -that didn’t work well.

Her love for her pets was all encompassing. So many cats were loved by Josie over the years. Her last beloved fur creature was Riley, a terrier who accompanied her through her cancer and brought her much joy. Her mechanical skills were second to none. She could fix anything! While she was in the convent, she was in maintenance with a boiler license. She always spoke fondly of the time she spent working with her dad on the farm. He explained to her how things worked and she took it all in. Sister Janey remembers that she drove the John Deere tractor on the farm at age 12. She also wanted to ride something else. She wanted to ride Penny, the cow, like a horse. She put a harness on the cow. Penny didn’t like that one bit and took off across the yard with Josie still hanging onto the rope running as fast as she could. Josie had a lot of farm stories. “Walking the beans” which she often did as a child, was a constant reminder to the boys of how good they had it.

Josie always wanted to be an altar boy. In those days that wasn’t permitted for girls. She used to pretend to be an altar boy when she was making the bed and holding her hand over her heart.

Josie’s dad used to milk the cows. The milk then went through the separator to separate the milk from the cream. Josie used to pick up the circle of cream that formed and pretend she was a priest and raise it up as in consecration.

Clearly Josie had a calling to priesthood. She joined the Holy Spirit sisters in Sioux City, Iowa, and served there for 9 years before leaving. In 2013 while Jerry was reading the paper, he

pointed out to Josie an article about Roman Catholic Womenpriests. Well, this was to become the fulfillment of a life-long dream for Josie. 

She found out where the community of Compassion of Christ was meeting and set out to see what it was all about. I remember the day like it was yesterday. I was preparing the altar for Mass and I saw this woman marching down the aisle with a friend on either side of her. She wanted to know all about the organization and then cried thru mass with joy seeing a woman at the altar, and then joined. She had found her new spiritual home for her ministry that had been waiting to be born for so many years. She went on to serve as co-pastor of 4C.

Also served as CFO for Roman Catholic Womenpriests. In 2018 Josie was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Once she was over the initial shock, she dug in with all the determination to stay ahead of this life-threatening diagnosis. During her last year of life when she was getting so weak, she bought herself a riding lawnmower that was way too large for the small yard. But she finally got the tractor she had dreamed of.

She fought as hard as she could for as long as she could to live. It was amazing. Towards the end, I remember trying to talk about hospice with her. She would have none of it, and we changed the subject. But this was Josie being Josie and never giving up.

About a month before she died I asked her what she would like for her service. The very first thing that flew out of her mouth was “Zephaniah! I love the part where God will dance in delight because of me.”

The first reading that you heard today was this passage from prophet Zephaniah. It was a reading she chose for her ordination. She just smiled and smiled when she talked about it. I believe that even as much as she loved the idea of God dancing in delight over her, she would read these words to each of you she loved so much-

Shout for Joy, People of God!

Sing joyfully!

Be glad! Celebrate with your whole heart!

Do not be afraid, my people.

Do not be discouraged.

God is present among you,

with a healing hand outstretched.

God will take delight in you,

calming and claiming you with love;

God will dance joyfully because of you.

Yes, God is dancing joyfully because of Josie. Let our hearts dance joyfully for her life as well. Let us live out her legacy by seeking with determination that which will enrich our lives and the lives of others. Let us never give up.