November 7, 2007

• My friend Marie, who smiles a lot, is going to hang angels on her Christmas tree this year.
  She
  came into the newsroom yesterday to tell me about her idea, and I love
  it so much I want to make it part of our Christmas. I thought you
  might, too.
  Yes, most of us already have some Christmas tree
  ornaments shaped like angels. But Marie is going to get some new angels
  this year. One for each person she loves who has died, one for each
  person dear to her who will be celebrating this Christmas on the other
  side of the River.
  She's going to paint their names on the little
  angels, and as she hangs them, and watches them shining in the lights
  of her tree during the Christmas season, she will think of the people
  they represent and what those special ones have meant to her. And where
  those dear ones are, and Who they are with.
  "This way, it will be like they are celebrating with me, like we're celebrating together," she told me.
  As she was telling me about her idea, her eyes were sparkling, and she was smiling.
  And
  we were both thinking about Rachel, whose name will be on the very
  first angel Marie hangs on her tree this year. Rachel, Marie's only
  child, her beautiful, smiling daughter, who died in her twenties last
  year, just before Christmas.
  What a lovely thing for this mother to do. To find a sweet and positive channel for her grief.
  My
  friend Marie has a deep and personal, tested-in-the-fire grasp of the
  truth that C. S. Lewis expressed when he said, "Joy is the serious
  business of Heaven."
  And of what St. Paul meant when he said we shall not grieve as those who have no hope.
  I
  imagine there's not one person reading this today who doesn't have
  someone they love who has gone on before them. I have so many that
  sometimes I laugh and say I've got more people who love me on the Other
  Side than I do here.
  Around this time last year, I wrote to you
  about our Catholic "All Soul's Day," which falls every November 2. It's
  the day we remember our loved ones who have died. And during the whole
  month of November, we remember in a special way those folks we love,
  the ones who have gone on. In our church we have the practice of
  writing down the names of those we love who have died, and placing
  those names on the altar, where they stay for the whole month, being
  lifted up to God in every Mass.
  I told my Baptist friend Marie about
  this custom, in light of her idea of the angels on the tree, and it
  seemed to me that both ideas were all of a piece. Remembering those we
  love who have gone on before us. Thanking God for them and for what
  they meant to us while they were living, and for what they continue to
  mean to us. And we Catholics also pray for them, for their eternal
  light and peace.
  Most of us miss our dear departed ones more sharply
  around the holidays, I think. I know my brother and sisters and I will
  miss our little Mama even more than usual during this first Christmas
  without her. Mama loved Christmas more than anybody in the world, and
  decorated her house with the excitement of a little girl every year. I
  have some of her Christmas decorations, and they will definitely find
  their places in our house this year. The Santa and jolly little elves
  she hand-painted will be dancing on my red sideboard, I imagine. Some
  of her other fancier Santas will find their places in the living room.
  There will be all kinds of ornaments that came from her house in
  Florida hanging on our tree - some old ones that have  been part of her
  decorations for years, and some newer ones.
  But I can promise you
  that there will be some new ornaments on our tree this year. Angel
  ornaments. One sweet-faced, pretty one will be in memory of Mama. One
  with a big grin will say "Daddy." And there'll be one for Doyle's
  daddy, Doyle, Sr.
  If I can find an angel with red hair and
  mischievous eyes, that one will say, "Grandmarie," for my Gulfport
  grandmother. One for Poppy, one for my beloved aunt Mimi, one for
  Granddaddy Buster, another one for Grandmother Aubert, and Grandpa, and
  Aunt Mary and Uncle Bob, and....well, we might just have a tree full of
  angels. Multitudes of the heavenly host.
  And we'll remember those we
  love, who, while we are celebrating here, are celebrating Over There
  with the REAL heavenly hosts, praising God and singing Hosannas.
  And when we think about that, we can't help but smile. Like my friend Marie.
  
  

  
  

  
  By Celia DeWoody
  Published Nov. 7, 2007
  Copyright Harrison Daily Times, Inc.
  Harrison, Ark.
  
   
  
  
  

  • 6:52 pm
  • 3 Comments