Spaghetti Dinner and Ice Cream Social

Saturday, March 21, 2009

St. Mary's Grade School Cafeteria, Burlington WI

4:00pm to 7:00pm

All proceeds go to the Fremgen Educational Fund for Brian and Nathan.

Visit FremgenFund.com for more details.

On December 22nd Dr. Patrick Morrison Fremgen signed up to make a commitment to attend a Men of Christ Catholic Conference on January 10th, 2009 in West Bend. We may not know his reason for wanting to attend but on the morning of the conference, in the dark, as the snow was falling, he left his family to meet 54 other men from the Burlington area at the local Knights of Columbus hall. There he got on a bus and headed out into a snow storm to deepen his commitment to Our Lord Jesus and his Catholic Faith. Arriving at the conference in West Bend he settled in with several others to experience, maybe for the first time, his Catholic Faith being awakened in the hearts of over 2500 men. We prayed the Rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy, we went to Confession, we Adored the Blessed Sacrament, and we finished with mass celebrated by one of our Bishops and 12 other co-celebrants.  The theme of the conference was to "Build a Band of Brothers" and the purpose was "Building a Bridge to Bring Men Home"

As we were gathering on the bus for the trip back Dr. Pat realized he had left one of his gloves inside. He made is way back into the center, retrieved his glove, and hurried back to the bus to be with his new brothers in Christ. On a snow covered patch of ice, coming down a small grade, he slipped and severally fractured his leg. Lying in the snow he called to the bus for help. Three of us ran to his aid. As we arrived Dr. Pat remained calm and indicated he had broken his leg. He wanted us to contact his wife and boys and let them know what happened. As one of us called Jayne several others came out from the center, including a Doctor, and we all moved Pat back inside to wait for the ambulance. Once we knew he was comfortable, messages had been left for Jayne, and he was in good hands, we headed back to the bus thinking we would be better off helping from Burlington. Little did some of us know this would be the last time we would see Dr. Pat.

Arriving back in Burlington we made contact with Jayne began to help her in any way we could. We made arrangements for a couple of us to go with her to bring Pat home from the hospital on Monday. Mentioning  “we took him there we can bring him home”.

How profound these words would continue to be.

The next morning we received word that Pat’s condition took a drastic turn for the worse. Father Jeff, from Pat’s parish, headed to St. Luke’s to be with him and the family. A call went out to the Men of Christ attendees throughout the greater part of the State. With urgency HUNDREDS of people began to pray for Dr. Pat and his recovery. People in Milwaukee, Cedarburg, Grafton, Madison, Racine, Kenosha, etc… all prayed for a quick recovery so Pat could come home to his family. Most of the people praying never met Dr. Pat but shared a common bond in attending the conference. As his condition worsened we as the Men of Christ from Burlington met for an emergency prayer vigil with Father Jeff at St. Mary's Immaculate Conception. He informed us on the seriousness of Pat’s condition and after praying together left to go home to our families, not knowing what God’s Will would bring.

The next morning we all awoke to the news that Dr. Pat had passed. We were all in shock, asking the question of how could this happen. A husband, a father, someone just like us, is taken Home to Heaven just like that, in a matter of days, from a slip on the ice? How does any of this make sense?

In reflecting on these events one must continue to remember that God sometimes works in very mysterious ways. The Grace he poured out on all of us maybe hard to see in the fog of this tragedy, but it is there. He called Pat home early, gave him the ability to experience the Sacraments of the Church including the final one. He wiped Pat’s Soul clean to prepare him for his journey to Heaven. He brought hundreds of people together in prayer to help “bring him Home”.  His never ending Mercy and Love will be with Jayne, Nathan, and Brian to see them through this time of tremendous sorrow. Our thoughts and prayers will continue to be with them.   His Grace is there, it may be hard to see at first but it is there!  What a Gift Dr. Pat and Our Lord have given us.

When each of us gets called Home to be with Our Lord Jesus, may we be so lucky to experience a fraction of the Grace given to our Brother in Christ.   Jesus said Trust in Me!

Rest in peace Dr. Patrick Morrison Fremgen and Thank You.  

This is an email that was sent out by one of the 54 men who spent Saturday January 10th with Dr. Pat at the Men of Christ Conference in West Bend.  Immediately after the conference Pat fell and broke his leg on his way back to the bus to head home to his family.

Dated: January 14, 2009    10:00am

Dr Pat needed our prayers immediately.

A call went out to all those men, fathers, husbands who attended the conference yesterday morning to attend a prayer vigil at St Mary's church last night.

It was last night when I realized what we were praying for.

We were praying for the restoration of our Catholic family values. As you already know, our generation of parents are fighting a society that is fraught with much evil and temptation, too much for our children to endure alone, to much for our children to endure with a broken family, too much for our children to endure without a father. We were praying for the spiritual protection of one of our Catholic families, a family that was fighting the good fight with us, to bring up our next generation with values steeped in our Faith.

We prayed for strength on all fronts. We also prayed for a miracle.

I was greeted at work with the email from Mike:

Men of Christ,

It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I am sending you this email. At 4:06am this morning our brother in Christ, Dr Patrick Fremgren, began his journey home to be with our Lord Jesus, leaving behind his wife and high school sweetheart Jayne, and their 5 and 7 year old sons.

Among other things, last night, of course, we were praying for a miracle to bring Dr Pat back to his family as father and husband. This was not God's Will.

You know, Jesus asks us all to Trust Him, boy in reading that email this morning it was easy to question why. It was only moments later that I realized that we did experience a magnificent miracle last night.

Dr Pat gave us a gift last night. We as fathers now, more than ever know what we need to do, me must band together as brothers to create a stronger barrier of Faith around our families and to set examples for our children that our Faith is a very important part of our lives.

Our children see this because we choose to live our Faith in a world where there are many other destructive choices.

To me, all Men of Christ conferences that I attend from now on will be in memorial to our brother Pat.

We have a long road ahead. Dr Pat's family will need our help not just for a week, or a month or a year. Let's make an effort to be available for them for the long haul.

Steve Wagner

Burlington Men of Christ Attendee