July 13, 2009

God bless the strawberry pickers. Thanks to their efforts last week we’ve had more fresh berries. And thanks, too, to those who helped clean them.

The other day I noticed how lovely the flowers are around the Mary statue that is between Hurrle and Mary Hall. In the remodeling project a couple years back Mary was moved to her present location, which, if I remember correctly, “they say” is where she was when we originally got the statue.

Friday I attended two funerals. In the morning I was at Bethel Lutheran Church for the funeral of David Thelander. age 40. Walter Andres, David’s father-in-law, is one of our employees.

Then in the afternoon, in our Motherhouse Sacred Heart Chapel, we had the funeral for Mary Krantz, wife of Jeff Odendahl, another of our employees. Mary and Jeff have been Franciscan Associates for the past 20 years. Mary struggled valiantly against her cancer. She planned her entire funeral. God bless Jeff. He was the homilist…and did a beautiful job! Mary selected the presider, Fr. Kevin Anderson, the musicians, choir and all who took part in the Liturgy. It was a true celebration of New Life for Mary.

This coming weekend will be a busy one. Friday night will be the 16th Relay for Life cancer walk at Flyer Field, at the High School. (Nation-wide this is the 25th year for these walks.) The theme is: “Celebrate, Remember, Fight Back.” There is a survivors’ supper at 5:30. The opening ceremony is at 7 p.m. I do the survivors’ walk which is the first group to walk around the field. My favorite part of the evening is the luminary ceremony at 10 p.m. Next week I can give more details on the event.

The St. Francis High School all-school reunion is Saturday and Sunday, July 18 and 19. It will be a GREAT event. Sisters Judine and Liz have been working hard on the arrangements for a LONG time. Their biggest desire is that everyone will have a good time. It will happen. Saturday evening there will be a dinner and dance and LOTS of visiting at the Falls Ballroom. That building will be filled to capacity, I am sure. I will be eager to see the members of our class of ’53. On Sunday we will have Mass at 11 a.m., lunch and of course much more visiting. I will have more about this event next week, too.

I/we pray for needed rain and protection from storms.



Pax et bonum (Peace and good).
Sister Mary Lou

PS:

During Community Days many Sisters worked on a 1,000 piece puzzle of cats wearing red hats. A week or so ago the puzzle was finished. And here it is.