Obituary - Mrs. Brennan, Sen., Eurobin, Gocup

20 October 1932 Freeman's Journal (Sydney, NSW) 

On Monday, 19th September, at her home, "Eurobin," near Tumut, there passed peacefully to her reward, after a more or less prolonged illness, borne with heroic fortitude.

Mrs. Brennan, widow of the late Mr. Edward Brennan, so well known and esteemed in the Tumut and Gundagai districts.

Mrs. Brennan was possessed of a remarkable personality, and belonged to that type of true womanhood that is an ornament to church and home.

She was the daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. James Crowe, of Gobarralong, whose family numbered ten sons and three daughters, all excellent practical Catholics, but of whom only two sons remain, one being the father of the late Rev. Bede Crowe, of the Bathurst Diocese.

Mrs. Brennan was truly a spiritual woman, and her life reminds us in many particulars of the lives of many saintly married women, now on the altars of the Church.

God came first always, but her duties towards her husband, her family and her home were more faith-fully performed in consequence.

The mother of one son and five daughters, she deemed it an honor and a privilege to have four of her daughters serve God in Religion - two in the Convent of Mercy, Goulburn, one in the Good Samaritan Convent, Sydney, and one in Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Convent, Sydney.

Nor would she have refused the fifth and last, the one destined to be the companion of her declining years - had not Our Lord claimed her by death.

She had lost her devoted husband too, when the family was still young.

His protracted illness and consequent suffering was one of the deepest sorrows of her life, but

"She never spoke of her troubles,

Or showed by word or look,

That her purpose ever wavered,

Or her faith for a moment shook.

With a soul that would not be conquered,

With a courage that would not die;

She fought her way onward and upward

Toward the goal she had placed so high.''

Our Lord is never outdone in generosity, hence He surrounded this valiant soul with every possible attention - spiritual and temporal, through the devotedness of her only son, James, and his equally devoted wife.

Frequently visited by Very Rev. Dean Sharkey, and by Rev. J. Blakeney (Tumut' s first priest), by the Sisters of Mercy, the end came (while the priest was actually giving the last absolution) as calmly and peacefully as her life had been free from reproach.

The obsequies took place in the Tumut Church on Tuesday morning, the Holy Masses being offered for her eternal repose.

A touching feature, at the Mass was that four little grandsons, ranging from five to ten years, received Holy Communion for their saintly grandmother.

Very Rev. Dean Sharkey spoke feelingly to the congregation of the loss they had sustained by the death of one whose generosity to the Church, charity to the needy, and strong practical Catholicity, made her a living example of what a true woman should be.

The funeral was largely attended, the children from the Convent school forming part of the procession.

Very Rev. Dean Sharkey, assisted by Rev. J. Twomey and Rev. J. Blakeney, officiated at the grave.