One of the better moments of the last few days since my Mom’s passing on Friday has been the nonstop outpouring of texts, calls, prayers from people far and wide. Each one is an example of the value and importance we have with each other, and every one…every one…is like gold to us. So, thank you.
There was a part of the eulogy from Monday I wanted to share and hope it serves as a reminder of the value we have to each other. It’s a value that ironically I was reminded of this morning after dropping my daughter Christine at the airport. In scrolling through Sirius XM, I heard one of my mom’s favorite artists (side note she taught grammar school with her mother back in the day in Brooklyn), Barbra Streisand. The song was the classic, “People.’ It was one of the songs I played for her during my last visit last Wednesday. Its words mean more now than maybe ever before.
If you have never heard her version, here is a link
While many, myself included, couldn’t understand why so many opportunities that seemed so important were not her thing, and we were frustrated by her lack of try, she was a creature of habit and remained a woman of great faith. But you know else what was her thing?
People.
What freed her from the shackles of her own fears and limitations even for short periods of time were all of you, and the things you do and the places you go. Places and experiences she just couldn’t get herself to do for whatever reason, but all of you did for her. Her cousins, especially Mary Ann and Franny and Joanne and Lorraine and my late cousin Linda, and of course my Aunt Carolyn and Uncle John, who she talked to every day until her last, were her things. My Uncle Mario, who she knew as long as almost anyone other than my father Vinny, was endlessly encouraging to her. Chris and Stephen and Felicia and Nancy and Laura, all were her thing. Brooklyn of years past was also her thing. She loved looking at the pictures we found, and remembered almost everyone from the past like it was just yesterday.
And most importantly her five grandchildren, Abby and Andrew, Caroline, Brigid and Christine, were the most important people in her life, and what she talked about most. Those were her things.
Her thing, in the end, was what should matter most. People and faith.
A feeling deep in your soul
Says you were half, now you’re whole
No more hunger and thirst
But first, be a person who needs people
People who need people
Are the luckiest people in the world.
I think that’s what would make her happy going forward, that all of you continue to live every day the best you can, treat others well, do little things that no one notices for strangers, have no regrets, leave this world a better place than the way you found it, and maybe in the end, enjoy some baked macaroni or Tira misu on her behalf.
People and places are what we need more of. Collect them all and hold them dear, we don’t get them back and they are gifts we should never return unopened.
Onward…and thanks to all.
