Monday, July 8, 2019
Please accept my condolence to the family of Walter, his wife, children, sisters and brother. ( I have been to two Rissmeyer Reunions and Pat comes to mind.) I am so sad to know another Rissmeyer has died so young. I think he was Aunt Anna's grandson, following Steve Rissmeyer's family tree. I am John's daughter, and he was the younger brother of Ernie and Walter. MY mother died in middle age after a car accident, and the three of us learned day by day to cope with this loss. I recall as a child asking Dad why we didn't see much of his family. (We had Grandma Rissmeyer stay with us for a few days before she went to live with Ernest's family). He said his brother's married Catholic girls. My father's responses to social questions were always so brief and he would not walk me down the aisle when I married in a Catholic church where my ex-husband had childhood connections in Rosedale. But I go to St. James Lutheran Church, in St. James, Smithtown. I am particularly happy that my father went to live with my youngest brother, his son David, who had his Pastor come to talk with Dad before he died since he was not church-connected nor spoke of Cnristianity, but never said a curse, and was always a fair and moral man.
