Steve

One of the most beloved ideas Mother Teresa championed was encouraging people to do small things with great love. At a funeral for an abiding friend on Monday, this thought echoed through the eulogies and celebration of his life. Steve Dellino impacted Boy Scouts, altar servers, coworkers, siblings, his own children, the parish to which he belonged, Knights of Columbus, neighbors, community members, and countless others by performing simple, unremarkable deeds with sincerity and commitment. This is the legacy of a life well lived.

I am fortunate to know Steve and the Dellino family, and I was fortunate to get time off from my summer assignment to attend his rosary and funeral Mass on Sunday and Monday. My favorite memories of Steve are snippets of him in action. He headed a Knights of Columbus project to ready a parishioner's home for sale, and I helped by demolishing and rebuilding a rotted backyard deck. For a couple hours the volunteer Boy Scouts and I pried the boards loose in a slow procession. Steve noticed our labors and came over with an axe. In two minutes of whirlwind motion, he equaled the total of our progress, and he rather enjoyed the process, grinning as we gawked at his immense talent for demolition.

At the Mass, his family brought forward for the presentation of the gifts a 20-quart pot that could have doubled as a makeshift swimming pool for toddlers and a wooden stirrer that looked more like a kayak paddle. These were Steve's tools for making his unmistakable marinara sauce. He made it in enormous batches for events like the parish Italian Dinner, and for his own funeral, he had prepared and frozen enough to feed the hundreds of participants celebrating his life.

The most intimate time I spent with Steve, though, was surely our 6 a.m. Cursillo small group on Tuesdays. We attended a Cursillo retreat together, and as part of the experience, attendees are encouraged to meet weekly with those from their parish that shared in the retreat. Steve and I were part of a group of five. Each Tuesday, we spent an hour talking about our week, examining the spiritual book we were reading at the time, and sharing the one moment from our week that we felt closest to the Lord. Steve shared simple moments -- speaking to an old friend, praying with family, receiving the Eucharist, realizing anew God's majesty at the peak of a mountain hike, or a meaningful conversation with a loved one during his chemo treatment. The sharing of these moments reinforced Steve's appreciation for relationships, especially with his beloved children and wife, and his devotion to service in the community through church, Boy Scouts, wrestling boosters, and activism. His life revolved around love and service. As his family said, Dellinos work hard and play hard. Steve illuminated this simple life strategy, and therefore made it gratifying for so many to celebrate his contributions and legacy.

To know Steve is to experience God's depth of love in the simplicity of a singular human life. Though he is mourned, missed, and loved, the Dellinos and their loved ones repeatedly expressed relief that Steve's physical pain had ended, his earthly journey was complete, and his life's work produced a remarkable family and people more faithful as a result of encountering him. What more can one hope to accomplish in this life?

Fr. Dennis told me that funerals are meant to make those who remain in this life better people. All who came to mourn and rejoice on Monday departed with the inspiration and example needed to become a better version of themselves. It was one more small act of love from Steve.