Kathy (Kareemah) Mullen

This may be an easier link to a very nice obit on Bryce Taylor on Legacy.com

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/alicetx/obituary.aspx?n=bryce-b-taylor&pid=196568279&fhid=26710

I did not know your family came from Czechoslovakia as well.  So important how we connect the dots in life, as it brings out the deepest meanings. And I am glad the information was helpful to you.  You never know what will help someone reconcile with the loss of others.  Even after decades of not being in touch, there seems to be this very deep connection to those we bonded with in our early years.

Yes, that is a sweet memory.  Sr. Elwyn, she was great…”Freeze!”  She was a sweetheart.  Such a good nature. God bless them both.

Also a classmate of Tommy in the same first grade in St. Elizabeth’s, just in the last month, I had been thinking of Tommy when I was watching documentaries of WW2 that mentioned Czechoslovakia.  I remember the nuns informed us in a proud way that Tommy’s family was from Czechoslovakia , which always interested me.

I wondered if I could find any thing on what he might be doing presently, so I googled him only to find the news clippings of the accident with he and his brother, James, and sister in law, Irene, and the one-line obit that also included loving tributes from his son and nephew. 

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/thomas-bacak-obituary?pid=194389902

Oddly, and sadly for the family losing three brothers so close together, another brother of their family, Hank Bacak, had died on October 19 2019, less than three weeks earlier.  His obit is also available and gives some family history.

 https://www.northdallasfuneralhome.com/obituary/18214/

All apparently fine people who will be missed. May the remaining family find solace in their faith and families.

Patrice, thank you for verifying this information on Larry’s death.  I only knew that he passed some time after high school and in some kind of vehicle accident.

I went to elementary school with Larry at St. Elizabeth’s.  I remember him fondly.  In sixth grade he sat behind me. When he wasn’t cutting-up out loud in class, he was constantly whispering to me and making me laugh.  One of his antics backfired when he put an ink cartridge in his mouth and bit too hard, and the whole thing went into his mouth.  We had to really stifle our laughing, and I don’t think the teacher caught on, but he had to swallow that ink, and had blue lips for a while.  I think it must have been that same year, after midnight Christmas Eve Mass, that he met me on the steps at the church front doors and asked if I would go steady with him, and had a small present for me.  We didn’t even date, and I didn't know of anyone in our class that dated. I wasn’t sure how we would go steady under these circumstances, so I gently declined.  He took it in stride and wanted me to have the present anyway.  It was a pretty rhinestone necklace.  I kept it and wore it for many years.  Later, in our senior year, he sat behind me again in English class.  He was still the cut-up in class, and was a challenge to teachers, but sitting next to him in class, I realized he had endeared himself to me, way back in 6^th grade with his sweet gesture on Christmas Eve, and I enjoyed that class and his company. 

Perhaps, in that English class he told me, or perhaps someone else related it to me, that he had been struck by lightening; struck in such a way that the only thing that happened was that it blew out through the tips of his toes, leaving burn marks.  

Apparently, not even a month after graduating, he had his accident.  I didn’t learn about it until a few years later when I was in college.  I was surprised and sorrowed, but he is remembered with love.  And he remains included in my prayers.

We were in St. Elizabeth's Elementary School from 1st-8th grade. Lovely person. I remember her mother passing when we were in 6th grade.  She is in my prayers.  

Posted on: Apr 02, 2021 at 5:20 PM