Among the members of the Medeiros family who attended the service and reception at the parish hall were two daughters of the cardinal’s brother, Leonel S. Medeiros: Diane M. Bromberg and her husband William M. Bromberg and Sandra L. Shrader and her husband Robert.

Bromberg said that Cardinal Medeiros was a humble and loving presence in their lives. “To us he was always Uncle Bert.”

Everyone in his family, especially his siblings, understood that Cardinal Medeiros was a special man, she said. When the time came for him to quit school and work, the family decided he should continue his education and then go on to the priesthood, and he understood it was because his siblings wanted him to follow God’s plan for him, she said.

When Cardinal Medeiros left St. Michael Parish to live at the chancery, the family and his parishioners were upset about the departure, she said. “But, no matter what happened, even when he was sent to Brownsville or when he was selected to replace Cardinal Cushing, he always said: ‘Whatever God wants.’”

Bromberg said she would often see her Uncle Bert during his visits to his parents’ Fall River home and during the family’s annual summer clam boil. “When he would come down for the clam boil, he would always bring his priest secretaries with him and all the nuns from the chancery, who only spoke French.”

Her uncle was a devout religious man with few passions outside the Church, except for his love for the Boston Red Sox, said Shrader.

“What did he do in his down time? He prayed,” she said.

Cardinal Medeiros died Sept. 17, 1983, after a heart operation, but Bromberg said the family never knew her uncle experienced heart trouble.

“Afterwards, the doctors told us: ‘It is not supposed to happen this way. The operation had been a success and it was the type of thing everyone recovers from,’” she said.

He was laid to rest in St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Fall River.

In his homily, Cardinal O’Malley said that Cardinal Medeiros was a great priest, bishop and very near to the Lord looking out for us, and that the people of Fall River are grateful he is buried with them.

Shrader said she misses her Uncle Bert very much, but she is also aware of what the doctors told the family his last words were: “Whatever God wants.”