Things are better

The funeral yesterday had it's ups & downs. It's always great to be with my family, no matter the reason. I take comfort from the ceremony and rituals of both Catholicism and my people. But again it was painfully obvious that more and more of my familiar world is slipping away. The current archbishop of Boston is ordering consolidation of parishes. Even though they insist that there are many factors involved in the process, there are only two - money and politics. My church won the population formula and is completely financially self sufficient. These are supposed to be two of the key factors. In real life, my church is the most valuable peice of real estate and my pastor was never "a friend of Lake Street." So very soon my church that I have attended since 1965 when my parents moved into the parish will close. My pastor was a newly arrived parish priest then and I was starting 1st grade. My brother was an altar boy, my sisters worked in the rectory, we all attended the parish school from 1st to 8th grade. The four of us celebrated our marriages there and my sons were baptised (Excuse me SouthieBoy.... baptized....) here. I teach CCD. Sis's funeral has forced us to face the fact that we will never have another wedding, funeral, 1st communion or confirmation there. Another wound. I wasn't able to pay attention to the church at the funeral yesterday, but in mass this morning, I did try to look around more, to appreciate something I know I will lose soon.
In between the tears yesterday (I did pretty good, I wasn't as weepy as my sisters)there were some laughs. I always end up driving someone and they beef about my car. This timeI had my uncle Walter and his partner Tom. Walter pointed out that I hadn't dusted the dash (which he also mentioned last time I drove him to a party) and Tom pointed out that his seat in the back was in the library (there are always books and magazines in my car). He read off a few titles out loud and proclaimed it was the reference section. I told them both that the next time something like this comes up they are to call and tell me to have the car cleaned. That if they find themselves in this situation again they will have only themselves to blame. Tom said next time they will just have me park at their house and have me drive their car.