09.05.2025 | Ordinary Friday

It's a bit cloudy here in the Carondelet Garden on this first Friday in September.  We should see mostly cloudy skies this afternoon with a slight chance of a rain shower (we can only hope!)  Highs should be in the low to mid-70s with winds out of the NW at 10 to 15 MPH.

Today would have been my Dad's 89th birthday and my parents' 72nd wedding anniversary.  Yes, I did the math correctly.  My parents married on my Dad's 17th birthday.  A different time and a different era.  Mom has been gone for twenty years and Dad left us seventeen years ago. It feels like forever and yesterday at the same time.  I still remember their 50th Wedding Anniversary party.  My Mom was not in a good place, and we all knew it was a matter of time but together they celebrated.  Like so many theirs was not a perfect life or a perfect love but they worked.  Ups and downs. Crooked roads and straight they travelled through life together.  In so many ways I believe Dad died of a broken heart.  The first time I ever saw my Dad cry was when my Mom passed.  

I remember giving his eulogy at the funeral.  I told his friends and family that Dad had his bags packed.  He knew where he was going.  He knew he would reunite with Mom and he had a faith stronger than anyone I've ever met.  He was a very black and white, good and bad, right and wrong type of person.  I am one who sees every shade gray and that sometimes-caused friction, but I always knew I was loved. 

Here's to letting those around us know we care.  Let those special people in your life know they are loved.  It's a good day to be a bit more loving.  That's all the news from here in the Carondelet Garden.