REMEMBERING MY OLDEST BROTHER.....1946-1986..........

My oldest brother, Harry George Feusi, was boorn on this day, April 24, 1986. After graduating from Luther Burbank High School in South Sacramento in 1964, he attended Sacramento City College for fifteen months, before entering the US Navy during the height of the Vietnam War, serving from late 1965 - to late 1969. He served on the USS Wright, and then on the USS Enterprise, which was the Presidential Emergency Command ship. My brother Harry was one of two sailors onboard chosen as stewards to the presidential quarters, should the President of the United States arrive to take up command from the ship. Returning to California at the end of his four years of active duty in the Navy, Harry settled in West Sacramento, married, fathered two children, worked, served in the naval reserve, and took up marathon running. On Labor Day Sunday 1986, when I was a transitional Deacon in St. Joseph's Parish Auburn, unbeknowst to me he was up in Foresthill, the mission of St. Joseph's Parish in Auburn, practice jogging in readiness for the Los Angeles Marathon. On his ride back down the foothill road, his van suddenly crashed into the side of the road and he was killed. I learned the news early the next morning when my sister Alice called to say there was news he had died in an accident somewhere near Auburn. I dashed from my bedroom to the rectory kitchen, to get the Auburn Journal newspaper. The top of the page headline was, "Man Killed On Foresthill Road". But the story did not identify him by name. I then called the Placer County Sheriff's Department, identified myself and explained the reason for my call. Placed on hold as they checked, when the call resumed I was told, "Yes, Deacon it is your brother, Harry Feusi".....Dead at age 40, having just become a grandfather, and only three and a half months earlier one of the pallbearers at our 95 year old, Grandfather Manuel Corey's funeral, his would be the next family funeral, only three years and nine months after our mother Josephine's death. Msgr. Kavanagh was away on vacation in Ireland and not due home for more than a week later. So we went forward with the funeral, with Father Jeremiah Boland celebrating the Mass at St. Rose's Church in South Sacramento, with me assisting as Deacon, and Father Colin MacDonald, (then Associate Pastor of St. Rose's) Father Tony Traynor, ( then Pastor of St. Joseph's, Auburn) Father Cornelius O'Donnell, (then Pastor of Holy Rosary, Woodland) and Father Toby Vereker, (then Pastor of St. Robert's) concelebrating. Father Boland did not want to preach however, so after consulting with him, my family, and Fr. Traynor, I agreed to deliver the funeral homily. It was not easy, but I got through it thanks to the fraternal support of the priests and the presence on a day's notice, of my San Francisco classmate, then Deacon, now Father Thomas Daly.....Today my brother Harry would be 64 years old. His widow, Rose has never remarried and continues working in West Sacramento public schools; his daughter and son, are in their 30's and 40's, and my nephew Harry George Feusi Jr., is like my youngest brother Thomas Doil, still single. He is now working as a business manager in San Francisco, and going by his middle name, George. George Feusi Sr., was the father of my two oldest brothers, Harry and Jerry, our mother's first husband. The Feusi Family who were staples on Franklin Blvd. just 5-6 blocks from St. Rose's / St. Patrick's, were like my mother's Corey Family, one of the original 7 Catholic familes in that area in the 1920's and 1930's. When my mother died in December 1982, and we went to St. Mary's Cemetery to make arrangements for her burial, we were asked by the Cemetery Director John Seymour, of any other family members buried there. The one grave available nearest any of them was just one row away from Harry and Jerry's father and the graves of his parents, Joseph and Aurelia Feusi. After a brief family discussion in the cemetery office, my father decided to bury our mother in that grave. Just over a month later, he awoke one morning in January 1983, and my dad decided to be buried in the same grave with her, which he was four years ago.....Memories. Of a brother who was an intelligent, thoughtful, and gentle, boy and man. Who served his country, family, friends, and community; and who departed far too soon.....>>> Let me share one funny aside. Because I was ten and a half years younger than my brother Harry, Msgr. Kavanagh knew him and my brother Jerry, from Sunday Mass, and catechism class quite well. In 1968, when I became an altar server and Harry had been in the Navy for well over two years, upon seeing me in the sacristy, on the altar, or at the door of the church, Msgr. would inevitably refer to me as Harry !! LOL !!!! I am happy to report he has called me Troy, since circa 1974 !!!!!!!!!!.....Speaking of Msgr. Kavanagh, he could not attend Senator Albert Rodda's Funeral Memorial Service Friday afternoon at Sacramento City College, given his current convalescence, but asked me to return afterwards to discuss it with him..........Peace, Prayers, Promise, + Preparation, For The Eternal Easter Of God's Kingdom. Fr. Troy

MAY THE SOUL OF MY BROTHER HARRY GEORGE FEUSI, REST IN PEACE AND LIGHT.....ALLELUIA !!!!! AMEN !!!!!