John Joseph Giammona

My family and I were members of St. Mary Magdalene parish in 1978. Monsignor was the pastor then and I was a young mother of 3 small children. He helped me through a tough patch. He was a good listener and compassionate. At that time my family was in the process of moving from Michigan to North Carolina. He gave me good advice and I am still grateful to this day that the Lord led me to him.

Father John, I´m so sorry to have missed you after I left home, having never looked you up when I returned for a visit. You don´t know it, but you made a big impact on me. I never told you, but at one time I wanted to become a priest. In the end, I decided I wanted to go into the Service, in aviation. I never knew you were in the Service yourself! -so much I didn´t know about you. I wish I had told you that I was going into the Service....I truly believe you would´ve liked that. I was...

Fr Giammona married my wife and me in August of 1970 at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. We were married 53 years in August of this year. We thought of him often and were sad to learn only today of his passing. I am confident he is in a much better place and we thank him for making our wedding special.

Father Giammona was a friend and very kind to our family. He was at our wedding and our son´s funeral. He was at Dave´s parents funerals. We stopped to see him at one of his parishes in central Michigan with our five small children. We live in SpringTexas and members of St Ignatius Catholic Community. We´ve been here since 1981.

Msgr. Giamonna was a good priest. I am a grad of St. Paul the Apostle in Grand Rapids, and he was the Pastor for part of the time I went there. I was young, but started to take notice though him of what Jesus was all about. Monsignor was pretty stoic. RIP.

A caring, loving, forgiving, and spiritual confidant and a good friend of both me and my wife. He attended our wedding in 1961 and my parent's funerals in 1994.
He was a man of God.

Father Giammona was supposed to marry us Nov. 30, 1963 however, something prevented him from being able to. I have fond memories of him at Sacred Heart Church in Muskegon Hts. He had married my brother-in-law & sister-in-law in 1960 so when my sister-in-law was diagnosed with terminal cancer she asked him to officiate at her funeral. He gratiously agreed which was a comfort to her.

Msgr. Giammona was childhood hero of mine at Sacred Heart School in Muskegon Heights, MI.. He had me talked into going to the seminary, yup, Father, you almost had me. A great guy!

I had Fr. Giammona for religion classes at Muskegon Catholic Central. I still color-code my notebooks, thanks to him! He was a good teacher, a kind man, and he always had a big smile for students. RIP, Father. You have definitely been a wonderful representative of God to so many.