Sunday Homily, 1-20-19, 2nd Ordinary Time, cycle C
Welcome in, Everybody, from Cindy & Dee.
Readings:
Isaiah 62, 1-5, The Lord delights in you (a good one)
Psalm 96, Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations.
1 Corinthians 12, 4-11, There are different kinds of spiritual gifts.
John 2, 1-11, The wedding at Cana.
Also from Ken and the two crazies behind him, Cindy & Marlene, Welcome in, Everybody.
Mary Ellen Munzell
As a way to honor Mary Ellen, I would like to tell you 4 stories that show why she was a special friend and dear to me.
The first time that Mary Ellen came to my attention in a special way was the first time we gathered a group for a two week trip to Italy. We had about 8 people.
And not to be outdone by the previous characters, Grace, too, says, "Welcome to our special Memorial for our dear Mary Ellen." It was Grace who packed her up so she could move back home to Connecticut, where she stayed one winter and returned immediately back to Dallas.
Mary Ellen asked me if she could go over about 3-4 days early and be picked up in the area around Lake Guarda, Italy. I was a little nervous, but thought okay. Mary Ellen wanted to visit Trieste before meeting up with us.
Why Trieste? Because her deceased husband, Chris, had been born there to a military family. Mary Ellen wanted to leave some of his ashes, which she did.
The A Team.
Just in case you are not familiar with how Mary Ellen & Chris met, it was at the American Embassy in Buenos Aires where she was working as a secretary and Chris was a Marine guard.
It was when Chris died that Mary Ellen took on the goal of scattering his ashes on golf courses on which they had played, especially in southern CA, where they had resided for some years. Which brought her to Trieste.
It takes a Grandmother!
I can still remember approaching Verona. It was sunny & mild. Verona was quaint & colorful. The plan was to meet Mary Ellen in front of the train station. She had taken the train from Trieste to Verona.
As we approached the small station on our right I saw ahead of us a traffic circle with a lot of flowers, and there was Mary Ellen. I was so relieved and impressed with Mary Ellen and touched by her gesture.
Are our musicians crazy or what??
The second event caused me to love Mary Ellen’s adventurous spirit. I took her and Rosemary to the best game parks in East Africa for a visit with the lions, elephants, and giraffes. This had been my home for about ten years. I had lots of connections.
We hired a driver & helper, rented a Land Rover, and headed to the mystical Ngorongoro Crater and the magnificent Serengetti. We visited all the animals and, in fact, late one morning a lion walked up and plopped down in the shade of our Land Rover.
It takes a Dad, too. Cody, a great one, and Olivia, his daughter.
Picture this. The Land Rover’s roof lifts up and locks into place so you may stand. We were standing while the lion took a morning siesta. If we had leaned out, we could have touched that lion. We didn’t.
I was especially touched by Mary Ellen on this trip. The ride was rough, we tented, and one afternoon we drove though a scrub area with Tsetse Flies, which could keep up with the Land Rover. We had to shoo them away for about 30 minutes.
Nothing better than meeting up again with good old friends, like Bob & Jackie McGrath and Joanne Languell.
The third story. Mary Ellen had a small private swimming pool in her back yard, as many of you know. What you may not have heard is that ME liked to skinny dip in her pool, until one afternoon she spied two young neighbor boys peeking over the roof line of her neighbor’s house.
Finally, as you had to know, ME was an avid supporter of U Conn’s women’s basket ball team. She loved to watch them play and then she and her sisters would discuss the game. U Conn had a record of 111 victories the day before ME died. The very next day, U Conn lost.
And more good old friends, like Cathy, Jackie, Alice.
Thanks, Mary Ellen, for being a special person and a special friend
And still more good friends, Grace, Camille, and Diane..