Our Loss, Heaven's Gain.(remembering pro life activist Felicia Goeken)(Brief Article)(Obituary)

No matter how expected, the death of someone near and dear often tests us in ways we could never have anticipated. When the woman who passes away is not just your friend but a fiercely loved mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, the loss is all the more poignant. When that death takes place on Christmas Eve, the toll can seem almost more than we can bear.

Felicia Goeken was just such a woman. Felicia died in her home town of Alton, Illinois, when her magnificent heart gave out. She will be sorely missed by a great multitude of family, friends, and people whom Felicia inspired.

In an age of unprecedented mobility, all seven children, 33 grandchildren, and 18 great-grandchildren, along with her husband George, still live in Alton. They were joined at her December 27 funeral by hundreds of people, who began lining up outside the church more than an hour before the funeral mass began.

Felicia is the second champion we lost in a span of two weeks. Like the late Bishop James McHugh, who went to be with his Savior December 10, Felicia was an early pioneer in the right to life movement. The wise counsel and boundless energy of people such as Bishop McHugh and Felicia Goeken helped create the right to life movement, the largest, most enduring grassroots movement of the 20th century.

Felicia's involvement preceded the disastrous 1973 Roe v. Wade decision which unleashed the abortion-on-demand monster that still stalks the landscape. In 1969 Felicia went up to testify in Springfield, Illinois, as a kind of preemptive strike. Some states were already gutting their protective state abortion statutes. Felicia did not want Illinois's law to get caught up in the "abortion reform" maw that was chewing up protective statutes.

Around the same time, Felicia began a personal ministry of coming to the aid of young women--not just pregnant women, but also those who found themselves in abusive relationships. Not surprisingly, in addition to being a founder of the Illinois Federation for Right to Life, Felicia also gave birth to Birthright of Alton, Illinois.

All of us have a story that helps explain why we are called to be a part of this Movement. In Felicia's case, she knew first hand the upheaval that so often follows the loss of a child. She endured the agony of a miscarriage herself in the 1950s. Felicia told her children that this trauma helped her to understand how devastated a woman who deliberately takes her child's life must feel. This painfully earned knowledge made her determined to help women with crisis pregnancies find a life-affirming solution.