LeRoy Pennysaver & News

LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - MAY 5, 2019 A Tribute from Our Lady of Mercy Parish in Honor of Spike Carmichael Given by Jerry Fernaays Patty and I and all at Our Lady of Mercy Parish would like to express our most sincere condolences to you Sue and your family and to Spike’s brothers and sisters and their families – Spike has left a void in our parish and in our hearts that will never be filled. Know that you are all in our prayers and will continue to be. Spike and Sue came into the Catholic Faith on Easter 1997 and were instrumental in bringing many other people into the Faith through the RCIA program. Spike loved to share his faith! Patty and I have had the pleasure of knowing Spike and Sue the past 22 years and as couples along with the Woodruff’s, the Miller’s, and the Inguaggiato’s all shared our faith on a regular basis and became very close friends. Spike helped Patty and I on many Confirmation retreats over those years. He would give a personal testimony of his faith journey that was from his heart and bring everyone to tears – including himself. He would also be a table leader for young men on those retreats and show what a real man can and should be. He had a love for the Lord that he wanted everyone to experience. Of Scottish heritage, he was a hard working dedicated family man who loved the outdoors and shared his love of hunting and fishing with his sons, Kevin and Andy. He was tough and stubborn and you didn’t want to mess with him. He sounded like the inspiration for a Jim Croce song. You see - there were really two Spikes – BC and AC. The BC or “Before Christ” he would openly share, was a time where he had much bitterness and hate toward many people. He said there were times where he would experience what he would call a deep black hole. He would just keep to himself and would not talk. That all changed when through Baptism in 1997 he found his “Faith in Jesus” which I think for Spike should be appropriately named AC …. for “After Christ” – All that bitterness and hate and the sense of a black hole disappeared and never returned. He was in his own words a “changed man”. It was as if God had lifted this cross he had carried and been burdened with for so many years. Patty and I were always in wonder by his testimony because we only knew the AC Spike who read and studied the Bible – never showed anger, was patient, full of wisdom and chose his words carefully. He was a regular Lector at our Church and admired and loved by so many of our parishioners and certainly by us. Family was of the utmost importance to Spike. He loved his brothers and sisters and through all of his marriage he had such a love for Sue, Kevin and Monica / Andy and Kim and their children and their grandchildren. He would light up whenever he talked about any of them – and you know how Spike loved to talk! I know you will miss him – we will all miss him – but we will never forget him because he left his mark in the time he spent with us. I think it is appropriate that Spike died during the Church season he loved and that meant the most to him - Lent. It was Easter in 1997 that he came into the Church and now Easter 2019 he will spend eternity with his Savior he so loved. God Bless you Spike and may you rest in the peace of Christ!