It's a year!

It's a year this week since mum and dad died.  I had been wondering all last week what to do to give these significant days the due attention they deserved and I needed to give for myself. 

I had given serious consideration to asking Frank, a Marist priest new here on mission from New Zealand, to join me on Monday, mum's anniversary, for mass at my place and then dinner at Nando's.  The Marist mission is in the south and he is presently here in Bangkok studying Thai.  I thought about it hard and decided not to as he is but a new arrival in my life. 

Last Friday then, it struck me to ask Robert.  Why didn't I think of him before?  Robert is a great friend from the cathedral.  So I rang and asked Robert if we could have mass at his place on Friday evening which is the day of dad's anniversary.  He was delighted.  So we could have a quiet and meaningful mass for both mum and dad at the end of an eventful week.  Way to go!

Then on Monday afternoon this week when back in my apartment, I was checking my Facebook and saw Frank's post for the day which included this photo of him around ordination time.  It told me that the same day as mum's first anniversary was his 13th anniversary of ordination.  The same day!  It was uncanny!  I was then so glad that I had not asked him about joining me on Monday for mum as that would have been a dampener on his own day. 

Then it struck me.  Two such events on the same day involving people connected through me speak of our reality and how life moves on, no matter what.  The happy, the sad; life and death - all goes on and as it should.   

Tomorrow is Friday and as I prepare to go to Robert's, I remember that his own mum is 91 and not all at well.  Life does go on and our reality is very much shared.