Elizabeth C. Sweeney

In the company of her family, her priest, and the staff of the Isabella County Medical Care Facility, Elizabeth Sweeney died on the night of December 1, 2009, two months shy of her 100th birthday. When she was 16 years old, Elizabeth left the small German farming town of Kahla to visit an uncle who had immigrated to the United States. She traveled alone. The United States was celebrating the Roaring 20s, while Germany suffered through its humiliating post-World War I depression. But Elizabeth was proud, and she saved her money to buy her most prized possession, a green silk hat that would make even sophisticated New Yorkers take notice. As her ship brought the city skyline and the Statue of Liberty into view, she couldnt resist an open porthole that invited her to take a better look. The wind took the precious hat and bounced it over the water until it sank to the bottom of New York Harbor somewhere near Ellis Island. Elizabeth was heartbroken. She arrived as Lisbet Pohler, but an immigration officer thought better of it and re-christened her Elizabeth. She found her way to her uncle in Detroit, earned her high school diploma in night school, and several jobs later went to work for her uncles dentist, a handsome young man who also played the piano. After an appropriate time had elapsed, Dr. Joseph A. Sweeney asked Elizabeth to marry him. She said she would think about it. First she had to accomplish the impossible task, as a German Lutheran, of charming the dentists six older sisters, fervently Irish Catholic and militantly protective of their little brother. She succeeded, accepted the dentists proposal, had five children, and eventually moved to the dentists home town of Mt. Pleasant. They shared the same bedroom where husband Joseph had been born years earlier at 304 S. Washington. Elizabeths life was her family. As one deprived of a higher education, she placed the greatest premium on academics. She motivated all of her children, and each one of her 17 grandchildren, to attend college. She was a marvelous cook, and into her last decade she still prepared red cabbage and German potato salad for holidays at the insistence of her family. Her visit to her uncle lasted 83 years. She never lost the last traces of her German accent, nor did she escape her German cultural heritage. She could be willful, stubborn, and always proud. But she was compassionate, open-minded, curious, and intellectually honest. She was a great reader of both fiction and nonfiction. Elizabeth joins her husband, whom she survived for 42 years. Also meeting her on her death were her oldest son, Thomas, and her best friend, Blanid Ann Murphy along with Elizabeths son-in-law, Richard Brandell. She leaves a legacy of four surviving children, Mary Ellen Brandell of Mt. Pleasant, Patrick (Midge) of Portage, Joseph (Ann) of Canadian Lakes, and James (Marilyn) of Mt. Pleasant and their families. 17 grandchildren and 29 great-grandchildren will miss her, but Elizabeth was a storyteller. She will be with her family for generations in their renditions of the tales she would tell of her childhood and her courtship with Joseph. Elizabeth had a second family during the last years of her life. The nurses, aides, and other health care professionals at the Isabella County Medical Care Facility provided comfort and companionship at the highest possible level. They never lost their patience and they were always affectionate. Their care, with the assistance of Woodland Hospice, allowed Elizabeth to pass this life with dignity and without trauma. Elizabeths family, especially her daughter Mary Ellen Brandell, will be forever grateful for their dedication. The family will receive friends at the Charles R. Lux Family Funeral Home, 2300 S. Lincoln Rd., on Friday from 4-9 p.m. Visitation continues at the church one hour prior to the Mass. Her family and friends will celebrate the funeral liturgy for Elizabeth at Sacred Heart Catholic Church on Saturday, December 6, at 11 a.m. with Father Thomas J. McNamara presiding. Memorials for Elizabeth should be directed to the Isabella County Medical Care Facility Patient Activity Fund, Woodland Hospice, the Isabella County Commission on Aging, or the Mt. Pleasant Community Foundation Brandell Sweeney Recreation Fund. Envelopes are available at the funeral home.