Harriett L. Shore Obituary

COLONIE – Harriett L. Shore, 80, of Colonie, passed away peacefully with her family at her side on Thursday, September 20, 2012.  Born Harriett L. Hobble on September 17, 1932 in Wichita, KS, the daughter of the late Theodore Foree Hobble and Grace Lyons Hobble.  She was raised in Needles, CA, and was a 1950 graduate of Needles Union High School.  She also lived in Rhode Island, Virginia, and North and South Carolina before moving to the Albany area in 1964.  Along with being a loving mother, she was employed at Macy’s in Colonie, and also served as a volunteer with the forerunner of Prevent Child Abuse NY.  In 1982 she earned an MA degree in Classics at the University at Albany.  She was a passionate reader, and was interested in women’s issues, gardening and genealogy.

Harriett is survived by her beloved husband of 58 years, Maj. Bruce J. Shore, USMC, Retired; her children Laura Shore (Nancy Ota) of Altamont, Robert Shore of Wright, NY, Jaye Freyer (Frederick) of Scarsdale, NY, Donald Shore (Linda Ellett) of Rock City Falls, NY, and Margaret Illis (William) of Berkeley Heights, NJ; her grandchildren Frederic (Jake) Freyer, Harrison Shore, and Brendan, Sarah, Peter and Kathryn Illis, and her godson Victor Tomelden.  She was predeceased by her sisters, Grace Elizabeth Hobble Johnson of Reno, NV and Anna Mae Hobble Farrington of Dodge City, KS.

Funeral services will be held in the Hans Funeral Home, 1088 Western Ave., Albany, Sunday afternoon at 4pm.   Relatives and friends are invited, and may call at the funeral home Sunday prior to the service from 2-4pm.  Internment services will be held at the Gerald B. H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery in Schuylerville on Tuesday at 11am.  To leave a message of condolence for the family, send a sympathy card, or obtain directions to the funeral home, please visitwww.HansFuneralHome.com.

Jaye's Memorial

My mother was born in 1932 and lived as a child through the Worst Hard Time, her family options hollowed out by the dust storms and the great depression.  She knew hardship, lean times and cold nights, parents challenged and changed by those times, but from that sprang a woman with a strength, spirit and undaunted intelligence and curiosity.  

She was born into a family of pioneers and homesteaders.  Her great grandfather was one of the first founders of Dodge City, Kansas, and there were many family stories passed down of the Wild West in its infancy.  She inherited the genealogy bug from her grandparents and delighted in discovering that ancestors of hers were among the very first settlers of New York, indeed, not ten miles from where she and Bruce ultimately settled, her ancestors helped build the first fort in New Amsterdam in 1621.  It made perfect sense to her that she, whose family had been moving westward for three hundred years, would back east and close the circle.  

When she met my dad, Mom was a vivacious California girl, living just off Route 66, swimming in the Colorado River, listening to cool jazz in the 1950s. My dad was a handsome Marine Corps officer.  Their adventures in building our wonderful family included 12 years of many moves to accommodate the military assignments my father served.  No easy task moving young children and pets from one state to another, yet the spirit of adventure and new things each move brought is what stands out for us in retrospect – the curiosity she encouraged in us to discover what was special in each new place, and a wonderful ability to embrace those discoveries with us. 

When they settled down in Colonie in 1964, my Mom changed with the times.  She learned yoga and explored gourmet and international cooking with her friends.  She was a gifted gardener with a strong love of the local flora, and she worked hard to incorporate and nurture wild flowers into her gardens.  I remember when a large swath of wooded land near our house was slated for a new development.  She rounded some of us up to go into the woods and save some of the plants.  I think we still have the Jack-in-the-Pulpits in our front garden from that adventure.  

She also strongly identified with the emerging women’s rights movement.  As soon as she was able, she returned to school and proudly graduated from the University at Albany 1982 with the first Master’s degree in her family, in Classics. Her gifts, curiosity and enthusiasm with regards to ancient language, history and literature won her the admiration of members of the Classics department and provided her with a lifetime of delight.  She maintained an unabated interest in classical archeology.  

Not long before she passed, Mom told Laura that if she had been born later she might have been a truly modern woman.  I think she was way more modern than me.  Though I’ve ‘done’ and ‘had’ the things she associated with modernity, she was the true pioneer – she walked a less guided path with little support and a lot of pluck. I loved her courage in reading her way into the ancient world, discovering a rarified road to a place where there were women as well as men in the pantheon.  She could have followed more traditional routes in gaining a business or teaching degree but she followed her bliss, did the hard work of learning languages no longer spoken to gain access into an intellectual place with a grace and aesthetic she appreciated.  

And I loved that she shared this with me!  Most teenagers would groan at the thought of going to the same college as their Mom but I found it incredibly invigorating meeting my Mom in the Rathskeller and talking about her Catullus translations.  

So Bon Voyage Mom, visit the places you longed to see and keep in touch!  

Burial Service for Harriet L. Shore

September 25, 2012

GREETING:

We come together in grief, 

acknowledging our human loss.

May God grant us grace, 

that in pain we may find comfort,

In sorrow hope, in death resurrection.

PRAYER:

Thou knowest the secrets of our hearts; shut not thy merciful ears to our prayer; but spare us, Lord most holy, O God most mighty, O holy and merciful Saviour, thou most worthy Judge eternal, suffer us not, at our last hour, for any pains of death, to fall from thee.

Oh You that raised up Jesus from the dead will also quicken our mortal bodies, by your Spirit that dwelleth in us.  Thou shalt show us the path of life; in thy presence is the fullness of joy, and at thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore.

UNTO you, O God we commend the soul of Harriett, our wife, mother and friend departed, and we commit her body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection unto eternal life

O God, all that you have given us is yours.

As first you gave Harriett to us,

  So now we give Harriett back to you.

Receive Harriett into the arms of your mercy.

Raise Harriett up with all your people.

Receive us also, and raise us into a new life,

Help us so to love and serve that we may enter

  Into your joy in the world now and to come.

Amen.

Into your hands, O merciful Savior,

  We commend Harriett,

Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you,

  She is a sheep from your own fold,

  A lamb of your own flock,

Receive Harriett into the arms of your mercy,

  Into the blessed rest of everlasting peace,

  And into the glorious company of her family and friends

Who have gone before.

The Lord be with you.
Answer. And with thy spirit.

Let us pray.

OUR Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. Amen.

O GOD, whose mercies cannot be numbered; Accept our prayers on behalf of Harriett, and grant her an entrance into the land of light and joy.  Amen.

O MERCIFUL God, Creator of our Savior Jesus Christ, who is the Resurrection and the Life; in whom whosoever believeth, shall live, though he die; and whosoever liveth, and believeth in him, shall not die eternally.

FINAL BLESSING

O God, who gave us birth,

You are ever more ready to hear

  Than we are to pray.

You know our needs before we ask,

  And our ignorance in asking.

Give to us now your grace

Speak to us once more

 Help us to live as those who are prepared to die.

And when our days are accomplished,

  Enable us to die as those who go forth to live,

  So that living or dying, our life may be in you,

  And that nothing in life or death will be able to separate us

  From your great love,

Amen.

Here in our voices and meditations we offer our final blessings and prayers for Harriett:

Time for speaking or thinking our final blessings and farewells for Harriett

HYMN:

God be with you till we meet again

Loving counsels guide, uphold you,

With a Shepherd’s care enfold you:

God be with you till we meet again

God be with you till we meet again

Unseen wings protecting hide you

Daily manna still provide you:

God be with you till we meet again.