She Ate What Was Set Before Her

Well, I finished Mom's taxes ... and although I haven't done my own, I at least have all the materials, and can do them tomorrow.

It got harder and harder as I went through Mom's paperwork ... and at the same time I kept praying a thanksgiving for this amazing, courageous, extraordinary woman. Looking at dated financial paperwork, it was not hard to see a progressive decline in her ability to deal with these things ... yet to me, just seeing her notes on a bill from 6 months ago told me that this lady was still, till almost the end, doing her very best to understand and respond to what was before her.

And I suddenly remembered the saying "He ate what was set before him."

And that's my Mom: she ate what was set before her.

I couldn't remember the source of "He ate what was set before him," and googled to find that this saying has a movingly wide provenance. Robert Heinlein is one source but so is St Anthony Marie Claret: see his Autobiography, No. 430, at http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:K3fny6NIvY8J:www.claret.org/documentos/en/autobio-claret.rtf+%22He+ate+what+was+set+before+him.%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=11&gl=us

I watched the TV show As Time Goes By tonite ... and oh Lord how it hurts for Mom not to be sitting here watching with me. She loved this show, as did I. She enjoyed it even when things were getting rougher for her; when her attention span wasn't quite as sound as at one time, and when she needed to go to the restroom a little more often than at one time.

Again ... she ate what was set before her.

Oh God please let me, even in infinitesemally minute way, measure up to the wonderful example of my Mom.

And thank you, Lord, for allowing me the privilege of spending time with her.

But oh how I miss her ...

Love always in Christ, dear Mother ...

Charles Delacroix
Sunday 28 in Ordinary Time