He's baaaack

A special hello to readers of Lay Witness magazine who may be dropping by because of my essay on losing Naomi (LW printed my blog URL). If you're a Catholic but not a subscriber, I recommend Lay Witness the monthly the flagship publication of Catholics United for the Faith. LW is timely, practically oriented, orthodox and always readable. My piece is titled "Grace at the Heart of Grief." (They ran a sweet picture of Naomi.) If it makes it to the online edition of LW, I'll let you know.

Christmas in Nova Scotia with my side of the family was fun, although not white, much to the chagrin of our four-year-old Mariclare.

The year 2006 has definitely been my poor mother's annus horribilis. She lost a close friend in mid-2006. Then her granddaughter Naomi Rose died in Sept. Then her eldest sister Rose died Dec 16. Rose (and her husband, my Uncle Don) would have been married 65 years -- no , that's not a typo -- on Christmas Day. Then a good friend and golf partner had a severe stroke on Dec 23, and was disconnected on Dec 26.

As real and heartfelt as this Christmas was for her, merry it was not.