John Schumacher

I remember going to see Uncle John with Becka in Sept 2019. We were passing through Billings and I wanted to check in and see him. So glad we did. He was watching TV, I think a game show was on. I wanted to introduce Becka, my wife of 4 Yrs at the time. He was warm and welcoming. He was very talkative and memory was sharp as a tack. Go see your loved ones while you can, when you think of them. The two pictures are my Grandpa Gerhard and Grandma Clara when they got married. I remember those pictures on the walls when I'd visit as a small boy. And painting is of the family farm in North Dakota where Uncle John and my mom Angie grew up along with my other Aunts Leona, Sister Michelle and Lucille. My mom actually painted the picture. Uncle John, you will be missed.

For the last 25 years I would pay my uncle a visit each time I visited Billings. We would walk to the Tapp Inn a few blocks away and talk for hours on end. There wasn't anything I couldn't talk to him about. We discussed everything from the Beverly Hillburys to contemporary politics, and, of course, family. He provided me with a different view of everyone in the family, and Grandpa was 55 when he was born, so almost like a grandchild, he had a unique view of everything. He had a mesomorph body like the Weiss family, and once when I was in North Dakota visiting relatives, they said they could tell I was a Weiss from down the block. All muscle, that is. I do see a lot of myself in Uncle John, and I felt close to him. I am so very glad that I got to know him and myself better in knowing him. He was a good man, excellent conversationalist, and tinkerer, par excellence. He would build computers and other contraptions in the basement. If someone finds a time machine, I would love to have that.

Uncle John was always a very kind, quiet man. He was spoken highly of by so many in the family; I don't think I ever heard a negative thing about him! I am grateful for the visits we had with him. May you rest in peace, Uncle John. Love, your great-niece Erin

I wish to thank our Uncle John for his quiet generosity. It must have been very helpful to our grandparents, Clara and Gerhard, when John moved to Billings to help them out in their older years. And, I am so impressed by how organized John was regarding his will and his trust. I thank him for his generosity and for his fairness to all of us, his nieces and nephews. John gave several interviews about his life, and because of these interviews, my generation and younger generations can know more about our family history and what it was like to grow up on the North Dakota farm. Thanks to Joel and Johnny, and perhaps others, for these interviews. I have also heard that John gave donations to the Benedictine Sisters in St. Joseph, Minnesota. One of his sisters, Sr. Michelle, and two aunts, Sr. Irma and Sr. Valencia, were nuns in this community. So, we thank you, Uncle John. We have good memories of you! May you rest in peace. Your niece, Judy

I wrote in John's obituary a verse from Ephesians 6:2-3 about the promise from God that "....it will go well with you and you may live long on the earth" for those who honor their parents. This promise, like all promises in the Bible, are about faith in the true God. Whether John was even aware of this promise, I do not know, but he did indeed live a long life which testifies to the validity of God's promises. While eighty-nine years is a long life by human standards, it is important to realize that eternity is an infinitely longer period! Because of that, I thought I would share from Matthew 7:13-14, where Jesus Christ (the Son of God and the judge of all mankind) said, "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." Funerals should be a time when eternity is considered carefully and not glossed over in an attempt to deceive ourselves with ear tickling platitudes. The reality of the spiritual realm in heaven and hell is very real, more real than our temporal earthly existence!