Written by: Edward Merrick
Helen Merrick arrive on the Merrick family scene on September 4, 1945, her debut delayed because of World War 2, but bother Tom and I adored her Immediately and protected her, which shielded her from everything but our inevitable teasing.
I used to read to her Little Lulu comic books and inevitably gave her a gift subscription. One of the characters was a girl named Gooch, and Tom and I soon hit the practice of calling her Gooch, much to our delight an her dismay.
In a moment of inspiration on day, I told her that Tom and I had held a vote and elected her as our favorite sister, which took just a second to register and provoke her wrath, To further aggravate her, I informed her that the vote was on vote for her and one abstention. She demanded to know who had abstained, to which I replied, as innocently as I could, “I don’t know It was a secret ballot.”
Mom taught all of us kids to read before we started school. Helen served for four years as a library assistant at her beloved Freeland High School, from which she graduated with honors in 1963. When she graduated the following year from the McCann School of Business in Hazleton, she was hired as secretary to the professional fund raiser employed by MMI to raise money to repair the damage caused that year by a disastrous fire to the main building.
She went on to work for accountant Milton Lloyd and late for the Hazleton Standard Fuel Company. For years she caught the bus at the corner of Centre and Luzerne Streets to get to those businesses until she had saved enough to buy her beloved green Ford, which she named Irish.
Tom and I were not content to stay in Freeland, but she loved dearly her hardscrabble little borough of Freeland and stayed to tend to the wants of our Dad and Mom. He pleasures were simple, and chief among them were sitting at the window to watch the comings and goings from Freeland VFW Post 5010 next door and to visit there daily to buy her favorite drink, Pepsi-Cola, which she proceeded to nurse for the rest of the afternoon.
She was a life-long member of Saint Casimir’s Church, and ardent animal lover, and a rabid fam of the Freeland High School Whippets basketball team.
Stays in assisted living facilities exiled her from her beloved Freeland, and she died at the Embassy of Scranton Nursing Home on February 2025.
Dad died in 1977. Mom died in 1996, Tom died in 2006. I alone survive to recite these words from the Lutheran Book of Worship.
Into your hands, O Lord, we commend your servant, Helen. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive he int the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen
