Mable and the Last Things

               I have been thinking about Mable this week.  I worked with her in the late 1970’s in a Stouffers Restaurant in Troy Michigan.  As a summer employee, I worked in the kitchen doing “cold prep”.  While I’m sure the job included more than this, I remember peeling mountains of shrimp each week, slicing dozens of red onions, mushrooms, and romaine lettuce. But what I remember most are the Fridays in my second summer, working alongside this octogenarian who had the most wonderful outlook on life.

              

               Mable had worked for decades as a baker for a variety of restaurants in the Stouffer’s chain.  Her husband had died many years before.  Each Friday and Saturday her work would fill the kitchen with the enticing smells of the most wonderful kind of sweets – tarts and cakes and pies.  These desserts were enjoyed by the guests who feasted at the Sunday brunch.

               

               I was drawn into a wonderful friendship with her, although there were 60 some years between us.  I learned very practical details about the precision of baking and the need to measure accurately. The most important lessons I learned dealt with how to age.  At 82 she was active, worked not for the money but because it gave a routine to her life.  Some weeks her back ached or her fingers were painful.  Rather than giving up her beloved baking, she knew that aches and pains were part of getting older.  She enjoyed each day that she lives. That fall she was going to Europe for four weeks and had found a grandchild to accompany her.  She was a believer in Christ and would not work on Sunday.

               

                Mable always comes to mind this time of year.  While the leaves are turning beautiful colors and you can hear a crunch under your feet when you walk over leaves that have already fallen, November is fast approaching.  I was reminded of this yesterday when I walked by a tree that has already shed its leaves.

               

               November is the month when the Catholic Church especially prays for the dead.  The focus in November is on the “last things” – dead, judgment, heaven, and hell.  This week, I made a list of the people in my life, who are no longer with us, for whom I want the Church to pray for in November.  Among those on the list are my parents and grandparents, a friend who died of cancer last June, a work colleague who died two years ago of heart complications and Mable. 

               

               After that summer, Mable and I saw each other occasionally when I came back to work in the kitchen during an especially busy time of year.  I never knew her last name or when she died, but I do hope to find her in heaven one day and let her know the important role she has played in my life.  She is my role model for aging gracefully and I am grateful that the Lord brought us together!

               

Hot as Hades!

There isn’t any way to get away from it. The news has been broadcasting its coming for days.  The local convenience store is out of ice. A car in front of me had all of the windows down and the driver was opening the door at each traffic light, to try to keep cool. Even Face Book friends are commenting on it.  When you to outside, you walk into a wall of heat.    

Accommodations are being made for the heat.  One friend’s company cancelled work because of the number of employees who take the bus, the Metro and walk. My sister is working from home.  At 6:30 am this morning, I saw a man mowing a lawn.  Camps are adjusting schedules to keep children safe. 

My act of defiance today is to wear snowman earrings. They don’t keep me any cooler, but they make we smile!

Yes, it is hot. It is also mid-summer in Washington DC.  The thought occurred to me that this three-day intense annoyance of hot, sticky weather can’t begin to compare the misery and agony of Hell.  I don’t often think about the details of an eternal life in Hell, but on this afternoon, those details were on my mind.

I recently purchased the Letters of St. Boniface (priest in the 7^th century) from a used bookstore, not being able to resist the bargain and the opportunity to read letters from the 600’s.  The second letter in the book was very disturbing, if not also captivating to read.  It reiterated the “Vision of a monk at Wenlock”. In this vision, the monk describes hell, purgatory and heaven.  Phrases like, “unspeakable groaning and weeping of souls in distress”, “pitch-black fiery river, boiling and glowing”, and “undying flames that torture forever” were used to by the monk to describe Hell.  This is what came to mind when I thought of that place of eternal damnation on this 100-degree day.

We want to believe in a benevolent and all loving God.  He does want us to love Him in the way that He loves us.  That means conforming our will to His.  He asks us to do this in spite of our society that encourages each of us to do what we want, when we want, no matter what effect it has on others.  None of us wants to recognize that following our will has consequences that could result in an eternal life away from God, which includes “undying flames” and a “fiery river”.

On this stifling day in our nation’s capital, I couldn’t help but pray for forgiveness for my sins, asking Him for help in doing His will, and thanking Him that this heat wave will only last a couple of days, not forever.