On March 17, 1979 my first sister, Erin Patricia was born. Due to a combination of complications and medical incompetence she died on March 30, thirteen days later. I got to hold her once.
When Paula and I were married it took us over two years to conceive the first time. We miscarried Blue Bonnet a couple of weeks into that pregnancy. Shortly after, we conceived Lucy. Lucy Elizabeth was born on March 30, 1999. At the time we didn’t realize the significance of the date. A few days later we figured out that Lucy’s aunt Erin had died twenty years before on Lucy’s birthday so we changed Lucy’s name to Lucy Erin Elizabeth in honor of the aunt she would never meet.
My kids often wish that Blue Bonnet hadn’t died so we have to remind them that they have a saint in heaven praying for all of them and that while we may have had a passel of kids, none of the rest of them would have been born if Blue Bonnet had lived. I’m not sure how many of them really understand that.
When I realized yesterday that my sister would have been thirty one, I started thinking of all the things that would be different had she lived: my brother James’s wedding next month wouldn’t be happening because James wouldn’t be here, my daughter Lucy would never have taken piano lessons from my sister Rebekah and my kids wouldn’t have the same wonderful cousins they have now, and we wouldn’t marvel at Michael’s amazing ability to have everything fall into place in spite of the improbability of it all.
What would Erin have been like? Would she be married? Would she have entered the religious life? Would we even have ended up in Colorado Springs or would her life have affected where my dad got stationed?
And so, as we celebrated Lucy Erin Elizabeth’s eleventh birthday yesterday and the thirty first anniversary of my sister’s death, I wonder about the blessings we are given that would never occur without the tragedies that came before.
My uncle lives in the town where Erin is buried and every year he places flowers on her grave. He sent us this picture yesterday. Uncle Richard, thank you for watching over her grave for us since we aren’t able to.
We spent Easter with family in California in nice 70 degree weather. On our trip back we squeaked in just as the leading edge of this blizzard hit. From Thursday night until about 4pm on Saturday we had non-stop blizzard conditions. The snow is still coming down a little but the storm is passing. The pictures below are what it looks like out our front door.
The drift next to the house is at least four feet deep. The drift I backed the van into is three feet. There are between one and two feet on the ground between our front door and the street.
I have to say, I really love the El Paso County snow removal folks. The grader came through our cul-de-sac and left a four foot high, three foot deep mountain of hard pack and landscaping-rock sized chunks of snow at the bottom of the driveway. We aren’t going to make it to Mass tomorrow.
We didn’t have it as badly as the folks up the mountains who spent the night in shelters after I-70 was shut down. The national guard had to bring in supplies and as of now the interstate is still partially closed.
I can’t believe a week has gone by and I haven’t posted this yet. Thomas Edmund Paul was born on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul three hours after Father came to bless our house. This was our seventh home birth and everything went as smoothly as ever.
Some friends who have a wonderful Catholic family of 9 kids, all home-schooled, are in the final 10 of a $25,000 college scholarship contest (and the parents are Aggie Catholics if you needed more incentive). They created a great video, but now need your votes to help them win. Go here to vote for them (yes, you have to fill out a short registration).
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