Muriel P. Guy

Muriel P. Guy, age 82, passed away on Wednesday, January 22, 2025, at St. Paul Elder Services in Kaukauna.
How Beautiful the Hands That Serve
Muriel Pauline Hirte came into the world on July 29, 1942. The oldest daughter of the late Clarence and June (Hulce) Hirte. Muriel married the love of her life Wayne Guy on June 24th, 1961. Together they shared 63 years, two children (David and Valerie) and one grandson (Ryan). Muriel breathed her first breath of Heavenly Glory on January 22, 2025.
Muriel was and is a beloved child of God.
Her hands lay still, silent and cold today.
A reflection of her life silhouetted in the veins, bones, and sinew that remains.
As she grew older, she would reflect on her hands. She thought they were ugly, an old woman's hands. On those days, in the moments, I tried to take the opportunity to remind her how beautiful these hands were.
As a mother, these hands wiped away tears, snot, poop, vomit and dirt to reveal the child beneath,
the child she loved.
These mother's hands cared for her children and her grandson through sickness and health, carved pumpkins, hung tinsel strand by strand, sewed clothes, created costumes and clutched the interior of the car as I learned to drive.
These mother's hands brushed the knots from my hair, rolled that same hair in curlers, so I could not sleep at night, permed it till I looked like a Dr. Seuss character and brushed it away so she could see my eyes.
These mother's hands held books as she read to me and carried many moving boxes.
These mother's hands made amazing food, pasties, homemade spaghetti, and cinnamon and sugar strips from leftover pie crusts.
These beautiful mother's hands raised her children, doing the final unthinkable act for a mother, these hands caressed her son's coffin.
These hands were so beautiful, beyond the role of a mother, they were a wife's hands. She wore her wedding rings proudly from the day she said "I do". These wife's hands built a life, a cabin, painting and wallpapering every surface in the house. She made a home. These wife's hands washed his clothes, his surgical sites, his home and his kids. These wife's hands weeded his flower beds, cooked his meals and fussed over him.
These wife's hands scrubbed his floors, the stains from his shirt and any mess her family created. These wife's hands served her family by serving others. She was a waitress serving others to serve her family.
These hands rejoiced as they held the most precious gift given to her. Her beloved grandson, Ryan. These grandmother's hands returned to childlike pursuits, finger plays, swinging, beating the burps out of him, decorating Christmas cookies, laying endless train tracks around the living room. These Grandma's hands pressed rewind on Barney and Lion King as a way to say an endless "I love you." God shielded her from the unbearable pain of losing her grandson in 2020 as her mind was altered by dementia.
These servant hands sewed costumes for musicals mended choir robes even after her children moved on from children's choir. She taught crafts for VBS, led a troop of Campfire girls, cleaned the altar and sewed banners for the church. These servant hands put nuts in nylons, packed layettes, sewing and school kits for people she would never meet around the world. I hope when she meets them in heaven to say thank you.
These hands cooked meals for church suppers, lead Parish Fellowship, worked her way up to fruit cutter in the Ladies's Aid fruit cake assembly line. She bought baby dolls for the children on the Wish trees because every little one needs a doll for Christmas. She decorated the church for holidays and so much more. She was the hands and feet of the church!
These servant hands sewed endless miles of ugly quilts, ones the recipients would use as walls and bedding and not take them apart and sell on the black market.
These servant hands knit mittens, slippers, hats and scarves for children.
Her hands addressed the needs without knowing the names or even hearing the words "thank you."
These servant hands sorted through mountains of junk to find treasures to help serve the people at Bethesda. These servant hands cashiered, managed, managed departments, dressed windows, whatever was needed they did.
These servant hands collected food for pantries, clothes, medical supplies, blankets for the Orphan Grain Train, soap for World Relief, drove people to and from the places they needed to go, these beautiful servant hands were the hands and feet of God in action. They are beloved because God created and blessed them. They were chosen, made holy and dearly loved by God. These hands moved out of love not because she had to but because she wanted to. These servant hands were a blessing and these hands left fingerprints on places and people she loved and those she never knew. These hands left a legacy...that beautiful legacy is beyond the beauty of these hands.
Well done, well done, my good and faithful one.
Welcome to the place where you belong.
The Funeral Service will be held at 11:30 am on Friday, January 31, 2025, at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 2450 W. 9th Avenue, Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54904. The Visitation will be held from 10:00 am until the hour of the service at the church. Interment will take place in Oak Hill Cemetery in Neenah.
The family requests no flowers. A memorial fund will be used to support various outreach passions close to Muriel's heart and hands.
A special thank you to the amazing staff of St Paul Elder Services in Kaukauna. Poppy Path especially Ashley Schroth and Hospice staff, Micki and Lisa Schmidt as well as Julie Fiel, clinical social worker at Neuroscience for providing an abundance of guidance, compassion, love and care to Muriel and our family. We were so blessed by what they do everyday.