Kathleen Noel

Kathleen Noel was the most beautiful and God-fearing wife and mother of my two children, Edwin Noel and Alicia Noel. We honor her life and sweet memories. God took her from us to his eternal home on December 13th, 2023. 

“Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.” Proverbs 31:31
-John Noel, Edwin Noel, 
  Alicia Noel

John Noel’s Farewell speech to his wife - Kathleen Noel at the funeral mass held at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Bergenfield, NJ. on December 16th, 2023. 

As the funeral mass has come to a close the time has come to bid farewell to Kathleen Noel, my beloved wife for over forty years. I want to say a few words to express my everlasting gratitude to her in her loving memory. I said, “My Beloved Wife,” Yes, indeed that she was, up until this movement of time. Kathleen was a devout Catholic “forever my sweetheart, a loving and affectionate Mother of my two children, Edwin and Alicia.” 
Little that I know that Kathleen had lost her father at the age of six due to an accident at work. She was raised by her Mother, Elizabeth who remained a widow until her death in India a few years ago.  

In 1982, Kathleen, we fondly called her “Chinnamma” in Malayalam language, (a South Indian language derived from Sanskrit) she came to the States on a professional Visa after having graduated as a Registered Nurse and Registered Midwife from Lady Hardinge Medical College based in New Delhi- the capital of India. She worked as a Nurse at Lincoln Hospital in New York City, NY since 1982. I was fortunate to have spent over 40 years of married life with her. I thank God for this great blessing that she was in my life.  
Soon after we arrived here, we were quite successful to having sponsored our siblings-several members from both of our families back home, to give them all a better life here. It was one of our cherished dreams. We were able to accomplish it by God’s grace. After having worked for 20 years, Kathleen became very ill due to her stress and poor health. It forced her to take an early retirement from work.  

She became very ill towards the end of her life often beset with several hospital admissions and treatments provided which inadvertently worsened her poor health. Thus, she became very ill towards the end of her life.  
Her last hospital admission was on December 12th at Holy Name Hospital and sadly she passed away on December 13th due to a cardiac arrest. Our hearts are broken. We grieve her loss. She was taken to her eternal abode by our Heavenly Father. It was his will. We believe she is in Heaven. We praise God and thank God for his great mercy and love.  

My faith teaches me that it is God’s plan for her eternal salvation having been set free from all her Earthy labor-pain and sufferings. This truth is revealed to us in the letter of John- 1 John Chapter 3 Verses 1 and 2, “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the Children of God, yet so we are.” John further assures us saying, “Beloved we are God’s Children Now, what we SHALL BE has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  

This plan of God’s salvation is very clearly written in the Gospel of John Chapter 3 verse 16- “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”  

I now begin to understand God’s plan in bringing her into my life with whom I have spent over 40 years. Like her I too have lost my own Mother when I was 10 years old. I was brought to a Catholic boarding school very close to New Delhi- St. Charles’ Intercollege which is situated in the vicinity of Our Lady of Graces Basilica where an Italian Franciscan Missionary Priest named Father Adeodatus OFM took care of me and also basically raised me as a child. My own uncle was a missionary prient of that Dioceses- Father Joseph Palathinkal. I never knew my wife until one week before our betrothal ceremony at the church and two weeks before we were married in the church. I was blessed that God brought her into my life.  

I have cherished her everlasting, sweet memories right in my heart before depositing her Earthly remains at the George Washington Memorial Park in Paramus, NJ.  

In closing I want to conclude with a scripture verse, Proverbs 31:31- “Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.”  

Thank you to all my Friends and Family who are present here and abroad. Again, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your participation as one family bidding farewell to my beloved wife Kathleen Noel. Thank you.  

With love from your Beloved Husband, 
John P. Noel