So close and yet so far! Keeping a stash of stories for my bulletin articles is pretty simple. As things happen in my family that warrant being “written up” in the bulletin, I jot them down in my phone (and pray that the backup that is supposed to happen each night really happens). I have a few Siri and Alexa related stories coming but I need to save some mega space for those doozies! As I looked through the stack of stories waiting to see the light of day, I decided to pull one from the past for today’s article.
This particular story happened in November. One of the Thanksgiving / Christmas traditions in our family is that we go and place grave blankets on the graves of several family members. We do this primarily at my maternal grandparents’ graves and the grave of my mom’s sister, my Aunt Karen. There generally was a big discussion in our family about grave blankets mostly “fueled” by my brother-in-law Jay who worked at Resurrection Cemetery up until his death in 2015. Jay had a STRONG opinion about grave blankets. And when Jay had a strong opinion about anything you heard about it, and heard about it again! He thought grave blankets were a complete, absolute, outright total waste of money. Oh, they may look nice and pretty in the dead of winter but they’re a waste of money and a complete nuisance. Now granted, we didn’t have to deal with them like Jay did, but we still thought they added a nice touch to a cemetery, especially with a fresh layer of snow.
Shortly after the beginning of “grave blanket season” at Resurrection Cemetery (aka November 15 through March 15), my parents, sisters and I will plan a trip to pick up and then place the grave blankets we purchased. For me, it’s a great ritual that I look forward to each year. It’s also a sign that Thanksgiving is a week or two away and things are heating up for the holidays.
This past November, my parents, Jackie and I met at Resurrection Cemetery one afternoon. I drove out to Shelby Township to pick up my parents and to pick up the grave blankets at Diegel’s Greenhouse (which is around the corner from my parent’s condo). Trying to find room in the back of my Acadia for my dad was a challenge because I had three grave blankets stuffed in it. My dad was a good sport about it; as he says he’s used to being “stuffed” in coach class in my car!
Once we got to the cemetery, the challenge was to make sure my “direction-challenged” sister could find her way to the graves. Thankfully, she found us without any difficulty. She claims she knew where she was going; I countered she simply got lucky and found our car! Once we finished our normal greetings and got things situated, we walked up to the graves, cleaned them off and got things ready to place the grave blankets. We then started to walk back to the cars to get the grave blankets but they turned around once I told them I could handle it myself. As I was bringing up the first grave blanket, I noticed my sister dusting and cleaning off a set of adjacent graves (or as I like to say my grandparents’ next door neighbors). “Jackie, what in the world are you doing?” She looked stunned and wondered what I was taking about. “You’re off by a grave or two.” I was already laughing at this point (big brothers do that often). She glanced at the names on the graves and joined in on the laughter. “Oh, I guess this isn’t grandma and grandpa! But look, these poor people needed some TLC too.” With that she finished tidying up the graves adjacent to my grandparents and then rejoined us “next door.” We all were laughing. Leave it to Jackie. I knew I had reasons to believe she’d get lost! I just didn’t think it would happen inches from the actual graves! She was so close and yet so far!
Save the Date – April 21, 2018: On Saturday, April 21, 2018, beginning with the 6:00 p.m. mass, we will gather and formally rededicate and rename the Family and Youth Center in honor of Sr. Carol! This year marks the 4
th anniversary of her death and we’ve always wanted to do something special for this most remarkable religious woman who served our parish community so faithfully. She certainly was a humble servant of Christ who touched the lives of so many people. Given that her mission was all about family and youth activities, renaming the FYC in her honor made sense. Fr. Rich and a great committee of people who were very close to Sr. Carol have been working hard to plan a full evening of activities. In light of the rededication and through the generosity of a family in our parish, we will also be making some minor cosmetic changes to the FYC to spruce it up. Some new signage will be added and each of the meeting rooms will be renamed in honor of a saint who was special to Sr. Carol. We will have much more to share in the weeks to come, but I wanted to give you some advanced notice of the celebration. I hope you’ll be able to join us on April 21
st beginning with the 6:00 p.m. mass. It will be an awesome evening!
Gala Thanks! Once again, the school threw a huge, successful and fabulous party! By all accounts the 2018 SJA School Gala was indeed
A Roaring Good Time AND a phenomenal success! While there are many people to thank, I would like to single out Karen Dybis, Pam Graskewicz and Matt Wyszczelski, as well as Kathy Kalich, our principal, for their extraordinary leadership in putting this wonderful event together. My thanks also go to our entire Gala committee and to the staff, teachers, parents and parishioners who had a hand in this great event.
I’m grateful to our sponsors and to all who donated items for the auction. The number of items presented for the auction was outstanding; we had more items than we’ve ever had in the past! THANKS for your outstanding generosity.
To all who bought raffle tickets, bid on items, attended the gala or volunteered in one capacity or another, THANK YOU for your generous support of SJA School!