Well, I've had quite the emotional rollercoaster of a week. It started last Saturday with going to Boston for a college friends wedding, singing in said wedding and remembering why I love Boston so much. It was a beautiful day, a lovely wedding, and I was reunited with most of my closest Campus Ministry friends and colleagues.
I got home to Mom & Dad's late, Mom was up with Casey watching the Olympics, and went to bed shortly after I got home and we caught up. I got an atrocious night's sleep on the couch thanks to a cricket that had made it's way into the house and was happily chirping all night behind the bookcase across the room.
I received a phone call early Sunday morning from my friend Josh that a young man from our parish had passed away. I had met Robbie a little over a year ago when he joined the adult choir, and he was diagnosed with leukemia less than a year ago. He had been in and out of the hospital for chemo treatments and the whole shebang (that I can't even being to imagine), and in June the cancer was in remission. It came back though, and it came back hard. To quote his mom's eulogy, his body gave up before his spirit. Last Thursday he passed away surrounded by his family, friends and much of the hospital staff who had grown to know and love him.
The wake was sad, and we didn't stay long. I got out of work Monday for the funeral and sang with the choir. It was the most beautiful funeral I have ever been to. I mean that. The music was incredibly moving, his uncle and his mother gave remarks of remembrance, and the Mass as a whole had a message of inspiration in the midst of sadness. He was a great guy. He had the whole world ahead of him. It makes you stop and wonder how someone so good and kind and young (he was 20) could have been given that path. But I truly believe it is to be an inspiration to any and all who knew him, to go on and live a life that is full of joy and kindness and to just love each other. Whether it's a stranger or a family member or someone you've had a falling out with, you just have to love each other and treat each other with dignity and respect.
Keeping Robbie in mind all week, I think I was more prepared than I would have been for Wednesday.
Sean called to tell me he was going for a walk in the woods. A 7 mile walk. He would park in Weston at the trailhead and end up somewhere in Redding. And would I mind picking him up after work to bring him back to his car? No problem!
Well, there was a problem. I was out the door at 5:00 pm and discovered at 5:01 pm that my car wouldn't start. At all. The lights turned on fine, so it didn't seem to be a dead battery. A few coworkers deduced that it was the starter not catching and needing replacing. So I'm in Darien with a car that won't start and now Sean is standing in someone's front yard (where the trail ended) in Redding.
My sweet coworker offered to drive me to Sean (we've carpooled most of this summer since we live close to each other), and we picked Sean up at about 5:45, got his car, and made our way home.
In short, I work with a guy who does car repairs, and he was kind enough to offer to replace the starter for me after work yesterday. I was able to get a ride to work from a guy in my department, and a ride to the Bluefish game that evening (which I was helping chaperone the youth group for) by another coworker who lives in Fairfield. I received a call around 7 that the starter was replaced, but the battery was weak, it had maybe another 6 weeks in it and would need replacing, but could very well leave me stranded somewhere at any given time. Well then, I got a new battery!
I got a ride to work from my sweet coworker again this morning, and was able to drive Yota (my green Toyota) home after work! It started better than it's ever started for me.
So I am incredibly grateful not just for having a working car, but seeing Robbie's kind spirit in my coworkers this week who without question helped me out and made what could have been something incredibly stressful, incredibly easy. I love that I work with people who have these qualities and are more often like family away from home than coworkers.
I am excited because tonight I get to finally meet the new baby of the family I've been sitting for. She was born July 7, and I am hoping it's not too dramatic a night! I'm planning on putting her big sister (age 4) to work helping me find the baby's things, and I am SUPER excited because I haven't seen any of them since a week or two before the baby was born, and they are like another family away from home. I have a lot of families!
Time to go eat a little so I can go find them a little gift for the baby! THanks for reading :)
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