NOVEMBER IS LOVE......LOVE IS NOVEMBER

November is a bad bad month. This is the time of year where families all come together. Family members come home to be with each other. The women cook. The men watch football. The women clean. The men toss the ball back and forth with the kids. That used to be my life but in 1993, that life ended. December 30, 1993 the Lord took His favorite angel home. I know she is always with me. I know she is what gives me strength to keep going when most women would have thrown in the towel. November 7 is the feast day for Saint Gebetrude of France. She came from a saintly family, like I envision my grandmother and her family. My grandmother was a very saintly person. I have never met or known anyone that had that much love in their heart. Someone so free from the chains of hatred that she purely loved EVERYONE. My grandfather was full of hatred. He was taught hatred and he gave it to his children. When he would project his hatred to the people of the house, she wouldn't say anything. She kept her mouth shut. Except if he attacked us grandchildren. Then she fought against him. She didn't tell him the error of his ways, she would simply tell him to be quiet and then she would go in her room, lock the door, get on her knees and pray. All the prayers I was taught as a kid were sixty seconds or less. She would spend a good thirty minutes praying. When she passed away, I found out that next to where she prayed was a rosary and a Catholic bible. I was never allowed to know she was Catholic. However, I took this as a sign to follow my heart and go to the Catholic Church. I had been wanting to be Catholic for years as a child but it was forbidden. "That's what's wrong with the world. Too many Catholics", Pop would say. Oh his Irish Protestant hatred was about as disgusting as his racism. LOVE IS NOVEMBER 7