Rest In Peace, Mary Devine, 6/5/1925-6/6/2008

-
My Aunt Mary died yesterday. This picture was taken at my cousin Jack's 50th birthday party two years ago-she's the one on the far left. The man on the far right is her younger brother, John-my cousin Jack's father. He's the last of the three Devine "children" - first my mother died of Alzheimer's in 1998 and now Mary died, of we think diverticulitis, the day after her 83rd birthday.

I will miss her terribly; she was my aunt, my godmother, my role model, and in many ways, my hero. She taught me about faith, hard work, independence, generosity and love. She was always there, always forgiving, and even though she could be bossy and domineering (as I've been told I can be, too!) she always had the best of everything in her heart. Anne made some calls today to let folks that she worked with know of her passing, and one of the women said that people at The Royal Globe (the insurance company where she worked for 45 years) found her intimidating because she was so smart. Smart she was, and funny, and quick and thorough. She didn't suffer fools gladly and she got the job done. Boy I sure hope I am like her - I'll need those qualities now.

Rest in peace, Aunt Mary. I only wish you had a more peaceful end but I am sure now that your suffering is over. I love you and I'll miss you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The finished product

-
Image
There's more to tell and I'll blog some more later, but here's our finished house, all but the roof. Here's our team, along with the masons and the family (and a few extra kids who we picked up along the way!)
Read more

Coronavirus and the election? Thank heaven it's over

-
 Things are weird in the Corey-Knapp household. I just found a draft of a post I wrote in July but never published. Oh well, that's old news. We're going a little stir crazy. Oh, we've been out of the house. We've gotten haircuts, gone shopping, been to the dentist (both of us), and even a few doctor's appointments. Okay, more than a few--remember, we're old. But now that we're both retired we would like to be traveling, to somewhere other than Whole Foods. And now this (as John Oliver would say)-the election! I am stunned that so many people could vote for Trump after these past four years, especially after these past eight months. But I'm particularly stunned that people who call themselves Christians could vote for him. When I see signs like "Catholics for Trump" or learn that friends of mine think he's done great things for the economy, I realize that we live in two different Americas. A friend recently posted on Facebook "Well, ...
Read more

Some final thoughts about my Nicaragua trip

-
Image
Now that I'm sleeping in my own bed, not doing "bug checks" at night (Dorritt was especially concerned about scorpions, and we did kill one) and showering in a real shower, I can remember the beauty of the country-here's a photo of a bandera flower, taken at the Hotel Raizon in Maysaya, Nicaragua, where we spent our first and last two nights. What a beautiful, complex and infuriatingly "messed up" world we live in, where folks can work really really hard and still have nothing, where a beautiful country can house so many people in poverty (Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, after Haiti). We met a woman from Ecuador who now lives in Chicago and is an environmental engineer for Texaco. She was amazed and touched that Americans would come to Nicaragua to help build houses. Kind of restores your faith in all of us, doesn't it? Here's a "parting shot" taken at the airport in Managua. Emily, Alexa, Lauren and B...
Read more