Friday, September 19, 2008

News

You be the judge of what I am about to tell you, whether it be sad news or happy news.

My mother, The Girl From Belfast City has died.

I received an email from a friend saying that he was happy to hear of my mother's passing because it meant that she and my dad were reunited, and that was surely a happy celebration. He also was sad because he knew that my loss was painful.

And that's about the way of it. What is a loss for me here is the angels' in heaven's joy. Oh happy reunion for them.

A few weeks before she died she asked me to pray to Heavenly Father on her behalf. She was ready to go. It was a painful thing for me to do. I wasn't asking for Him to make her well, instead I was asking for Him to take her 'home'.

She said she was anxious to be with my father, that she missed him dearly and saw him in her dreams everynight. She said that the time would be soon and that she'd join my Dad and that they'd be happy. And then she says,"Then your father and I will wait until you and your brother join us."

That's how it will be. The time will seem long for me on this side, but will most likely just be a blink of the eye for her.

Her sweet singing voice is silent, her wonderful stories are only a memory. Her wonderful brogue well I hear it in my mind's ear. How wonderful it is to have most of her stories typed into a word doc. I treasure that. If I have learned anything it is to put your adventures and thoughts down on paper so that you can recall them later.

Tomorrow, och well I suppose since it's after midnight that TODAY mom will be buried. There will be a harpist, a couple of pipers, a violin solo, a flute and singer duet, a few readings. We'll close the burial with the pipers and a dedication of her grave.

Ireland, my Ireland
My love you beguile
You haunt me and taunt me
And cause me to smile
Oh could I return and sit by the stile
Ireland my Ireland the green Emerald Isle.

...
Oh my heart is yearning
to be returning
to the hills and glens of Antrim


Today my mother gets buried beneath the Irish Soil, even though she is being buried in South Louisiana. We have several bags of Irish Soil and we'll sprinkle some on her casket so that she will have the comfort of knowing she's buried beneath Irish Soil. She never quit being homesick for the old country. It was the land of her birth and held a special place in her heart.