Some good byes.

This month has been quite eye-opening to the many phases of life. As I posted before, our dear friend Ed Novak died the Saturday before Easter week. The Funeral was on Thursday, I hear that it is Good Thursday, and it was such an interesting and movng experience to be a funeral so close to Easter. To think about death and rebirth and the gift of the Atonement was really humbling. We got to finally meet our darling new niece who, at the funeral, was only one month old. Seeing a newborn reminds one of the miracle and majesty of life. SHe is truly a little angel and we are glad to have her in our family. She was a great comfort to Ed's wife Arlene after the burial too.

The funeral itself was beautiful. They attended Catholic Services regualrly and their home church is the airy, open, beautiful building with lots of stained glass and stone. one thing I particularly loved was that hanging behind the front altar, was a gorgeous bronze statute of the risen Christ, not the Crucifix of the dying CHrist that I am used to at Catholic Churches. It really helped me to focus on Ed being alive and vibrant and with his family again. His family loved him so much. he was a charming, funny, content man and although we didn't have that much time together (11 years), he will be sorely missed when he is supposed to be there!!!

Another goodbye was one that should have been so jarring but was. My sweet "aunt" Lucy died the day before Easter. she would have turned 96 in April, so death is expected when you get to that age, but her loss saddend me so much. She was this beautiful tine woman who had a heart of gold. She is such a hero to me! she was a "rosie" during WWII and the picture of this sweet tiny woman in a jumpsuit lugging sheets of metal around just blows me away! She always had her makeup on in the morning before she came out to cook breakfast- she was always a lady. She was devoted to the ones she loved and she had seen so much in her life! She went to nursing school with my grandmother and was related to us as a double first cousin- sisters of one family married brothers of another. She was buried next to her sweet Joe, a man who I still miss to this day, in a military cemetary in San Antonio Texas. My mother sent me a picture of the casket and even it was dainty, feminine and beautiful just like she was.

Our lives are better from knowing these wonderful people and their loss is a loss to the world at large. I am so thankful for the ressurrection and the knowledge that we will be with those we love again and that I can continue to learn and grow from both Lucy and Ed's examples that they set in this lifetime. I love you both.