May 25
The out-of-town brothers and sisters are staying with various in-town brothers and sisters for the weekend, but late in the morning the four brothers gathered at the Pewee Valley family home and did some yard work, digging up some stumps, cleaning out the gutters, and moving a woodpile that hadn't been touched for years. Then in the late afternoon we all gathered at brother Ray's (with the hoe) house in Crestwood for a cookout on the new deck he added to his and Tammy's house. The kids had a great time setting off bottle rockets. Later in the evening, all the eight siblings got together for a meeting to discuss various options for Mom's future.
May 26
This morning we took our mother to the ten o'clock mass at St. Aloysius Church in Pewee Valley, the first time she had been in church for two and a half months. I ran into three of my former students from Angela Merici High School who now live in the parish.In the afternoon we had another family gathering, this time at the Pewee house. As soon as everyone had arrived, and before we ate, we all got together for a photograph out in front of the house, trying to take advantage of the early evening fading light. We got pictures of grandma and her children and grandchildren, then the grandchildren, and then each of the families, just for good measure, before the mosquitoes got too bad. This picture is of the whole family, with all the children and grandchildren.
May 27-Memorial Day
The Ohio family left yesterday evening after the dinner was finished, and the Wisconsin branch drove north early this morning so there were no special gatherings today. The Florida group went visiting old friends in Oldham County, and I went looking for some shirts and computer parts, taking advantage of the Memorial Day sales.
May 28
Today it was back to work for everyone. A physical therapist came early in the morning to show Mom how to use the new shower equipment we installed in the bathroom and then early in the afternoon a visiting nurse came to take blood samples from Mom to make sure all her medicine levels are balanced.
My brother Dennis started working on the list of house repairs our sister Mary had prepared for us to do this week. First on the list was replacing a ventilation fan in the downstairs bathroom. While he got out the tools, I went down to the Office of Worship for the Archdiocese of Louisville to check on some lectionarys that we need for the Catholic English-speaking community in Cambodia. It's always good to visit the staff there.
This evening eight of us went to a New Albany, Indiana Italian restaurant to celebrate my sister Ann's birthday. It was a nice gathering with very good food.
May 29
Today was a day for working at home. My brother Dennis made some repairs around the house and I worked on the computer, adding an external 40 GB hard drive. Several times during the day, friends of Mom came by to visit her and I would sit and talkl with them for a while each time. This evening we went to my brother Ray's house in nearby Crestwood. While we were waiting for supper, I showed them some of the posters about the dangers of landmines that I brought from Cambodia.
May 30
This morning while my brother Dennis stayed at home with Mom to wait for the physical therapist who was going to give us instructions for exercises with mother, my sister Mary and I went to the Sacred Heart Home in eastern Louisville to see about possibilities for Mom's living there. We had a good visit with the director of admissions and learned a lot about the services and levels of care offered there. I was also surprised to run into many people I knew, people who remembered me from my time in St. Lawrence Parish 30 years ago and who are now residents at the home.In the afternoon I took my laptop to my sister's house and copied all the digital photos I've taken in the past week on to her computer, and then I returned to Pewee for a pizza supper with 7 of the 8 brothers and sisters gathered for a last time before Dennis heads back to Florida tomorrow. We have a great family!
May 31
The morning was taken up with more last-minute repairs and the visit of our sister Martha with her children before they headed north to their Ohio home. Then our cousin Judy English and aunt Phyllis Lippy brought over lunch and ate with us. Delightful! Shortly after that it was time for brother Dennis and Dalton, his son, to head for the airport for their trip back to Florida. All the out-of-town brothers and sisters have departed Kentucky now. The day was still not over, though, because at 6:00 PM another visiting nurse came to check on Mom.
June 1-2
Saturday--I did some last minute work on my homily for this weekend and then headed out for Hamilton, Ohio about 11:30 AM. I arrived there about 2:15 PM and was greeted by Fr. Jeff Silver, the pastor of St. Julie Billart Parish. We talked for a while and then it was time to celebrate the Sacrament of Penance over in the church. I was kept steadily busy until the deacon finally came and rescued me from the reconciliation room because it was time for mass to begin. The church is a beautiful renovation of an old Gothic style building and the community of the faithful is delightful, too. Mass was at 4:30 PM and I preached on the theme of today--Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ--applied to the whole world as seen from a mission perspective. It turned out quite well. The parish is remarkably well organized and it was very pleasant to work with such a competent staff.After mass I was alone in the huge downtown parish. I went out and rode around a few blocks to see Hamilton, a small river town that is just beyond being a suburb of Cincinnati. Then I went to Taco Bell to pick up a burrito.
Back at the rectory, which used to be an old Franciscan friary with many rooms, I ate and then went over to the church to set up some displays in the lobby of the church for people to see at tomorrow's masses. There hadn't been time to set them up before today's mass unfortunately. Then I reworked my homily to improve the parts I hadn't like when I preached this evening.
Sunday--The church staff opened the buildings and got things ready so I had little to do except to make sure that I was ready for the 8:30 AM mass. My sister Martha drove over from Loveland, Ohio, and it was great to see her there. The homily went better this morning. St. Julie has a nifty wireless microphone system that actually works, and it was nice to be able to move around while I spoke to the people about Cambodia and Maryknoll's work there. After mass I talked with various people who knew or were related to priests that I know or who knew my relatives living in the Cincinnati area. At the 11:30 AM mass, I felt that I did even better with my homily--and was surprised when people clapped at the end! That doesn't happen very often for most preachers, I believe! As soon as mass was over and I had finished talking with several families, I took down all the posters and packed the car and head south to Kentucky.
I didn't eat lunch at the rectory before I left, as I had planned, because I had talked to people longer than expected, and I wanted to get to Louisville for a family reunion on my mother's Stauble side of the family. They were meeting in George Rogers Clark Park from 11:30 AM to 4:00 PM, and I was hoping I would get there before they finished. I arrived just after 4:00 PM and they had moved out of the rented pavillion, but many of the family were still around and I was introduced to a lot of cousins that I had never met before. I even found that some of the girls I taught at Angela Merici High School in the past were my relatives. I hope some day I can get there for the full day of the annual Stauble reunion.
June 7
Yesterday, before we left St. Meinrad, I started sneezing and feeling bad generally. By the time we got home I was feeling lousy and had a fever. My coughing woke me up a lot during the night so this morning I went to the doctor my mother uses. I was a bit concerned because a cough that started the first week of May hadn't fully disappeared yet, and I didn't know know if today's flare-up was something new or just more of the previous problem. The doctor did a chest x-ray, which Maryknoll had recommended if the cough didn't clear up, and a TB test, and then gave me a new antibiotic to try. I wasn't quite ready for the bills--$181 for the doctor visit and $135 for fourteen pills!From the doctor's office I went to an attorney's office to sign a new will. My sister had arranged for my will to be updated.
Back at home, I found that Mom had dropped a washcloth into the toilet while it was flushing and now the toilet was stopped up. I fished around with a clothes hanger and found nothing, and then waited till my construction company owner brother stopped by on the way home from work. We looked at the various options, tried a few things, and ended up just taking the toilet out. We found the washcloth in the elbow in the toilet, not in the pipes, so it was easy just to put the toilet back in. I learned a new skill today!
June 8-11
Saturday--Late this morning I drove to St. Philip the Apostle parish in Morrow, Ohio, on the northeast corner of Cincinnati. Fr. Ed Stolze, the pastor, was gone, but some of his staff let me into the church and rectory and helped me set things up for the 4:00 PM Saturday evening mass. St. Philip is a renovated old country chapel that has become a modern sanctuary with the altar in the middle and seats on all sides. It is interesting--and fun!--to preach with a wireless microphone in that kind of context where I can move around.After mass Peter Clark, almost an unofficial deacon at the parish, took me to supper at a country club near the church. We arrived just in time to see War Emblem lose the Preakness! Dinner with Peter was most enjoyable, especially because we shared common interests like flying and sailing.
Sunday--This morning I had the 8:00 AM and 10:30 AM masses. The St. Philip parishioners are probably the most organized and well trained that I have seen anywhere. They have a real sense of the meaning of ministry and practice their various ministerial roles with efficiency and grace. All parishes should be like that!
My sister Martha and her son Caleb came to the last mass, and after changing clothes and returning the keys, I followed her to their home in Loveland, Ohio where I stayed for lunch and then visited with their family. That was the first time I had seen their new home.
Back in Kentucky, I arrived in Pewee Valley, our family hometown, just as my sister Jane and her family brought over a chicken dinner which we all ate together. Then it was time to start working on the e-mail and getting a few documents sent to various people because I would not have Internet connections for a few days to come. It took longer than I thought and then I still had to pack. I didn't get to bed until 2:45 AM.
Monday-Tuesday--This morning my brother Ray picked me up at 7:45 AM and drove me to the airport. I checked in quickly and then made some phone calls and mailed some letters. It was a one-hour flight to Chicago, and there I had just fifty minutes before the departure of the United Airlines 747 for Hong Kong. The plane was full. This time we went over the North Pole which was an interesting variation. The headwinds were twice as strong as expected on that route, though, and there were persistent thunderstorms over Hong Kong which might have necessitated circling so the pilot diverted to Beijing to refuel the plane before heading on to Hong Kong. That made us about two hours late but I was able to get to the Maryknoll house by 9:00 PM on Tuesday night. We lost a day coming west over the International Date Line.