Mary-Louise (Molly) Eshelman

Mary-Louise Eshelman, 92, known better as "Molly/Mollie" died January 11 at Wauwatosa, WI. She was born October 4, 1922 in Rochester, MN to Robert and Louise (Miserez) Newcomb and grew up near Williams Bay, WI and Elgin, IL. She and her husband, John were married at the home of her parents in Wisconsin on September 29, 1945, celebrated their 69th wedding anniversary in 2014.

Molly graduated from Elgin High School in 1940, then attended the University of Minnesota. In 1945 she matriculated from St. Xavier College for Women (now St. Xavier University), Chicago, and its affiliate, Mercy Hospital School of Nursing, with a B.S. degree. At the close of her senior year, Molly served in the Nurse Cadet Crops at the Veterans Administration Hospital at Battle Creek, MI. She then taught Nursing Arts and Pharmacology at Sherman Hospital School of Nursing in Elgin, and then turned her attention to raising a family of seven children. She returned to nursing in 1964 and was employed by Sherman Hospital for the next 20 years, 15 of which were as Night Supervisor. She was considered the ultimate care giver.

She always put her family and others ahead of her own welfare. She was a breast cancer survivor. In 1988 she and her husband retired to their newly constructed home in Jefferson County, east of Cambridge, WI, where they lived for 12 years, then moving to Madison, WI for six years, thence to Middleton, a suburb of Madison, where they occupied an apartment in an independent living facility, and finally to Wauwatosa.

Molly is survived by her husband, John, and seven children, Scott (Ann) of Rhinelander, WI; Mary (Jeff) Zehren of Fond du Lac, WI; Marc (Linda) of Burnsville, MN; Kurt (Wendy) of Elgin, IL; Kay Hughes of Crystal, MN; Susan (Thomas) Ela of Milwaukee, WI; Jennifer, of Oakland, CA; 13 grandchildren, 6 great-grandchildren, and a great-great grandchild. Besides her parents, Molly was preceded in death by a sister, Ruth Hempelman, of Johnston, IA.

A memorial service will be held at Lakeview Evangelical Lutheran Church in Madison at a date to be determined. Persons wishing to acknowledge Molly's career in nursing may direct memorials to Elgin Community College Foundation, Nursing Program, (Please select Scholarship or General Program Fund), 1700 Spartan Drive, Elgin, IL 60123. The Eshelman family wishes to thank the staff of Harwood Place Assisted Living program for the dedication, competence and outstanding care they provided Molly over the past year.

Mary-Louise cherished the following Irish Prayer:

I'd like the memory of me

to be a happy one.

I'd like to leave an afterglow

of smiles when life is done.

I'd like to leave an echo

whispering softly down the ways,

of happy times and laughing

times and bright and sunny days.

I'd like the tears of those who grieve,

to dry before the sun

of happy memories that I leave

when life is done.