Eulogy by Jon J Agresta (Son)

Thank you all for coming today to celebrate my dad’s life and what a life! I don’t know how you summarize this guy in a few minutes, but I’m gonna do the best I can.

Most of his life was spent right here. A incredibly loyal servant. If my math is right he celebrated over 9360 masses that does not count the hundreds of weddings and  funerals  first holyCommunion and confirmations. Dad and his talent was truly a gift from God to this parish for the better part of 75 years. Wow that’s the only word you can use to describe it.

In fact a good friend of our family Father Bill Ryan  tired to. He once said, Jon your dad has played here so long that he’s played for some folks when they were  hatched matched and dispatched all in the same place.

Dad stoped playing for weddings about 25 years ago. He would only do a wedding for a close friend or a relative. Once I asked him whywould you prefer playing for funerals instead of weddings?

He told me that the deceased were much easier to deal the brides could be a little tricky.

Here is a beautiful and funny story about how this close knit Parish family connects  generations.

About 30 years ago at a party at mom and dads house peg Crofton told my dad that he actually forgot to play for her wedding.

He said oh my God I did forget to play for one that was you?

And she said it was mine, and then Peg with her wonderful sense of humor  said don’t worry about it that’s not the worst part. We forgot Mom at home.

Here is how life can come full circle in February Richie Crofton called me and asked me if dad would play for his daughter Rebecca’s( peg and Dicks granddaughter)  wedding so I called dad he was honored to do it

He also told me he was gonna put two reminders in his phone. Just one aspect of his remarkable sense of humor. He said I don’t wanna blow that again after 60 some years.

That would be the last wedding dad would ever play for. Such a heartwarming story about friendship, love, and again the people that make up, this
WonderfulParish that he loves so much and how it truly does span lifetimes.

My father‘s amazing talent has echoed in these walls forever with amazing beauty and grace. His undying  dedication to the music ministry of this parish will be incredibly difficult to match.

a few weeks ago he and  I had a discussion about his final wishes
A truly difficult discussion for me.

He told me, Jon you just take care of it. I said well I would like you to be able to play for your own funeral.

He started laughing and said well, if you can pull that off you’re better than I thought you were.

In reality couldn’t but  Joachim could so today some songs will be played at Mass by my dad
 

Dad’s life at church and his music sometimes overshadowed the fact the he was also a great businessman he owned and operated our family businesses   Agresta Oldsmobile Pontiac, Buick, GMC, Cadillac and Chevrolet dealerships  for over 45 years. He was a tremendous owner, focused around family!  He considered and treated our many employees as family.

He was a compassionate, kind, civic minded business owner fiercely loyal to our community. His contributions as a businessman still live on throughout this town long after we sold our business.

You could fill a room with his accolades and I’m only gonna make mention here because I want to focus on his music

he won the most prestigious awards for every single automobile franchise we owned  for multiple years, some spanning as long as 15 consecutive years.

He won the highest award you could win as a dealer for basically every franchise, multiple times.

A very illustrious career for a humble automobile dealer 

Additionally ,he was a proud member of the Williamstown Rotary club the and recipient of the Paul Harris fellow award the highest honor received by a Rotarian

He was also honored to serve on the Board of Directors from Monroe savings bank for over 30 years

It is note worthy to mention that his music even spilled over to his business life. Every  year the Oldsmobile dealers would have an annual trip to Bermuda to plan advertising

His fellow dealers used to rent a room with a piano, and Dad was the after dinner entertainment till the wee hours of the morning.

If there was a gathering with a piano and my Dad, there was a party.

I did not want to shortcut dad’s business career, an incredibly amazing career. but I think if you ask dad, he would say his greatest achievement in life was his gift of music and giving that gift every single day to the music ministry of this parish.

The love and beautiful marriage to my mom for over 50 years gave him drive to perform.  My mom was his biggest supporter and by his side every second until she passed.

That was  something as a son that u watched and admired this amazing commitment they had to each other. She made sure he continued his work. Mom demanded it and he complied.

Mom would never complain, but it’s a huge sacrifice for the amount of time that he had to spend working on his music but as much as he loved working on it, she loved listening to it so never once when you hear my mom complaining about how much time he spent working on the beautiful music that he made.

his music defined every fiber of his life and ours.  Growing up, our house was filled with music on a daily basis. You woke up Saturday morning to Dad practicing the piano before work.

There was music in our house every single day anybody that stopped by any gathering, if we had friends sleeping over everybody gathered around that piano for our entire life, until just a few weeks ago.

His appreciation of music in general and his knowledge was quite frankly astonishing but what he loved most was religious music the music that kept him close to God.

in fact, he even composed two of his own songs. A beautiful version of the our father And another called Jesus my Lord The choir has performed both of those songs at different times over the years.

Dad started the first children’s choir here, taught music here and created the first adult choir  in 1957,  initially shortened for a year or two because of Vatican 11. But once reinstated he didn’t leave its side until last Tuesday.

His commitment was undying to his choir.  Thursday nights were off limits. Don’t have a game, don’t get sick. Don’t have a birthday. Thursday night Choir practice.

Dad had a way of taking ordinary people putting them together and making an unbelievable work of harmony. 

If you wanted to join dad’s choir  you were in. Just listen to him he could get cranky if you didn’t.

he was so committed that Santa Claus wasn’t allowed to come to our house until after (at that time ) 730 mass and then all the gifts had to be open and played with before he had to leave to do 11 AM mass

It wasn’t just holidays . That was his ritual every single Sunday.

Dad was very charitable with his time. He has spent thousands and thousands of hours working on music preparation, programs and detail to create what we all just come to see as wonderful Mass on Sunday. Like it just happens. He put in the work.
 

He took pride in making moments special for people, knowing that a tear at a funeral from a song he sang would be remembered , or a tear of joy from a song he sang at a wedding would be remembered or even at a meditation after communion on Sunday might give someone a memory that would last or mean something special to them to connect with and enhance their experience in faith.

Creating those memories from the beautiful music he played is quite a statement in fact, it’s a legacy.

My father was very generous with his time but he also took great pride in the way this place looked and was beautified.

My dad would donate things quietly without a lot of fanfare. His contribution to purchase the organ when Monsignor Ryan needed more money: mom and dad were there.

Sending the stations of the cross back to Italy to the original family that created them to be restored was a gift that made him very proud.

There are many more things that dad and mom did to keep the beauty and the history of this church  in place.

Mom And Dad donated the chimes for the Bell tower of Saint Mary leaving us to be the only remaining functional Bell tower on Church Rowe.  All the other churches fell silent, but not St. Mary’s.

There was something else he may have changed with no financial contribution.
The mural above us was put in by father Carmen . I was at work one day and I asked my mom where dad was. I needed something signed and she said he’s down at church practicing. Something he did on a regular basis, his entire life.

So I came down walked in, didn’t hear any music but Father Carmen and dad were sitting in the center pews with  no air between them. 

So I walked up and I could see Father was very agitated and I said hi how are you today? He said not very good. Your father is sitting here telling me that my cherubs have faces that look like demons

Dad looked at me and said well they do. With that look he had.

I don’t know whether it was a week a month or two months but I remember dad coming in my office with an ornery grin,and saying hey you wanna take a ride down to church and look at the new cherubs.

By the way, I don’t know if my dad influenced him but a lot of people felt the same way about those cherubs Anyhow, we have pretty cherubs now.

My dad’s life was a symphony.  woven through the fabric of this parish and people that he worked with, friendships he made collaborations he formed to make a lifetime of music  for so many to enjoy. 

His voice may be silenced, but hopefully will live on through the incredible memories that he made.
And I know the excellence of the music ministry at this Parish  will carry on the wonderful reputation that he passionately made his life work.

Before I close, I wanna make an announcement that starting next year we are setting up a annual foundation in my father‘s name

For  a deserving eighth  grade student graduating from St. Mary’s they will receive $1000 scholarship to be able to put towards music lessons instruments or anything required to further their education in Music.

We want Jonnie Agresta‘s legacy to continue and live on through the young people that have the passion and love to create beautiful music.

A huge thank you to everyone who checked in all the time to see how my dad was and all the people that came to see him. Thank you.

Even  through some of the darkest moments of the last two months, the toughest times, there were moments of absolute and incredible love that I have never experienced in my life.

Beauty shining through by the grace of God and we all experienced it with dad.

June 10, my Mom And Dad‘s wedding anniversary when Vinny brought a piano to the rehab And Dad played in sang my mom‘s two favorite songs. 

All of a sudden he had an audience of about 20 people doctors nurses patient applauding him for an unbelievable performance. That would be the last time dad would would ever  play and sing on their 64th wedding anniversary.

Or last Thursday when Father Sanjai came over to pray with the entire family at dad’s bedside and give him his last rights in beautiful emotional service that none of us will ever forget thank you father 

I’d like to thank Amanda who stayed with him 24 seven for the last eight days of his life and the comfort she provided in his home
 

And to my brother Jim, who was there every step of the way with me through all this uncharted territory Dana my wife who is an absolute rock for all of us there’s no way I get through this without you.

Michelle for giving us super sound advice about on how to navigate this journey.

Aaron Elliott Austin and Michaela
Thank you for being there for Pop.

And thank you Vinny for being pops live in and helping myself and uncle Jim I can’t imagine the reward you that you two of you got from spending all that time together.

Jordyn and Joey for being there two seconds after your phone rings every single time thank you

Jonnie and Jehu for loving  Pop pop every day

And of course, Aunt Kathrine , who took most of the brunt herself and stayed with him for innumerable hours. You were rock! I also, know by now, you’d like to hit me with a rock.  ——but thank you he loved you and

But most importantly, I want to thank Dad for the life he’s  given to us   The life he’s given to this church and for his amazing music

Dad, you were one of the most beautiful people that ever walked the face of earth. A giant personality an Icon and in my opinion, one of the most influential people in the history of Williamstown. Well done well done pop.

And as you say at every family function we’ve ever had: when we all raise a glass salute, salute. Pop!