Monday, July 17, 2023

Remembering mom with love on her 94th birthday - Our help is in the name of the LORD - +JMJ+

 

Dad holding mom in his heart on the first birthday she spent in heaven - gone for 4 months in 2020.  This was 3 years ago today when dad was living with me here in my "Farm Monastery."  She would have been 94 today and I miss her so very much!  

I was blessed with the gift of sharing with my father in his religious life as a Permanent Deacon in the Catholic Church for 44 years.  We shared morning and evening prayer of The Church in dad's well marked and loved prayer books, which are now here for me, and how I love to read them each day and continue to sit at his feet as he shares with me with underlining, highlighting, and circling and writing his thoughts down.  

He continues to pray with me just as we felt mom's presence sharing in our prayer time, too.  As a Deacon's wife she was to join him in prayer morning and evening, and so she continued even after death! 

A precious keepsake of mom taken just a couple weeks before she passed in a day.  Falling in the morning in their Assisted Living and breaking her hip and gone by 5P.  I rushed to her side, and made sure that all of my siblings could call and say their goodbyes.  I was a river of tears! 

These words from the Psalm today in mass spoke so powerfully to me...Our help is in the name of the LORD,

who made heaven and earth.
R. Our help is in the name of the Lord.  Psalm 124

My Deacon Father had such a devotion to the "Name of the Lord."   I smile so much when I see "name" circled everywhere he finds it in his Prayer books!  
3 years ago on her birthday here.  The next day we drove up to Taylors Falls for mom's funeral mass.  It had been postponed by 3 months due to covid. My dad was so happy to finally be able to gather and give her a proper sendoff!  
Mom praying with dad and I on one of my visits to their peaceful wonderful home in St Croix Falls under her favorite picture of the 3 little girls.  Her family of 11 children started with the 3 girls - I being the oldest of the 11!  

My heart is aching a lot to see this and to recall the precious time I shared with both my parents in this home just 4 hours from my farm to them.  Pat was very generous with allowing me to have days with my parents.  And then when they needed help 24 hours 7 days a week.... I was the one who had the middle of the week and I tagged team with 3 others - 2 brothers and a sister!  I cherish those memories!  


Pat cutting the last ditches for the year.  I will be glad when they are done.  It makes me worry about his safety.  
Lord and Lady, please keep him safe!  
12 years ago with the 6 grandkids by the Manistique, MI lighthouse - we were gifted with a week there every summer beginning in 1998 until 2016.  
11 years ago - Pat's mom at Pat's sister, Joyce's pool party in the Cities!   I think she is holding baby Rose.
Praying the litany last night - we started praying when it was Big Dave's birthday #15 and ended on my mother's 94th Heavenly birthday.  Lots of prayers for both Pat's family and mine!  
John has the last hour of Sunday and I have the first hour of Monday.  So appropriate as my dad would pray for the entire family - 140+ first and middle name every Monday and I pray for the litany of our families - all 250+
I am starting to get pictures from Maria now of the inside of their new home... the girls room with roses from their garden in the front yard.
Very pretty and makes me curious about their flowers.
Maggie going down in her girl's bed for naptime.
Maria and Joseph 9 years ago in El Paso TX after a visit. She will have Romeo on his grandpa Pat's birthday - Sept 15.  This year Pat will be 69 and Rome will be 9!  
My mother and I when mom was in her mid 80's
She always had beautiful flowers!  Her home in St Croix Falls where they lived for 11 years after leaving the Big Lake!  
One of the rare visits Ruth made to see my parents 7 years ago.  Mom was 87 here, and when she turned 90 it was like she knew that it would be her last year.  She was very sad and unhappy and did not want to move into Assisted Living.  

The rest is history.  She only lived in the Assisted Living for 5 1/2 months until she fell and died in a day.  A month later my dad came to live with me here for the last 6 months of his life.  They were married for 70 years and only apart for 7 months!  Amazing and beautiful!  

Lord and Lady, how I long to be in heaven forever with you and my parents, my sister, Mary, and brother Lincoln.  May I die to self and stagger down the narrow path dragging my Most Cherished Cross with heaven as my goal.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barbara and the 34 plus many Little Brothers and Little Sisters.  
Praying with my parents was my greatest JOY and it continues as I have their prayer books left behind for me.  















Danielle Rose 


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