It's a lovely day,

sunny and approaching 70 degrees. It's Sunday but Janett and I were up at 6:30. We had coffee and dressed and drove to Lombard to pick up Kim. Ross was sleeping in but Kim joined us for the ride to the Convent of the Sacred Heart on Sheridan Road, for a memorial mass for Aunt Dean. The ride up Lake Shore Drive was beautiful with Lincoln park to our left and the lake on the right, with boats in the harbors at Monroe, Fullerton and Belmont streets. We arrived before the appointed hour, and stopped at a coffee shop down the street and had coffee and croissants before walking over to the Convent. More time to chat.

Jason and Dee and Noah and Lauren joined us at the chapel. Fr George Lane SJ presided at the Mass, and Sister Curry eulogized Aunt Dean. It was also an alumnae weekend at the convent and there were many folks there who remembered Dean from their time there, and it was very nice. Sister Curry was of the next generation of religious from Dean in the order, and I don't believe Fr Lane ever had occassion to meet Dean, although he had family ties to Sacred Heart and Barat. It was one of those times when you felt you had more to share than to learn about the person being remembered. But it was very generous of Sister Curry to invite us all to attend, and generous of Fr Lane to give of his time, as he may be one of the busiest men in Chicago. Five out of eight of my brothers and sisters were there, some with their children,(and their childrens' children)and we were all happy to be together.

The day made one nostalgiac for the times in the first half of the last century when the finest of the Irish Catholic families would produce children who at the age of eighteen or twenty would know they loved Jesus more than the world and would enter orders like the Sacred Heart or the Society of Jesus.

And yesterday Jason and Dee's son Joey made his first Holy Communion. Steffy and Kim and Ross and Lauren and Noah were there with us, and Jason's friend Jim from high school and of course all of Dee's family. Joey was handsome in his navy blue suit, with one of the those white arm garters,(pennants?), little Italian boys wear for their first communion. Dee's mom had gotten it for her grandson, Dom, fifteen years ago, and it had been packed away. It was touching because it evoked the presence of Dee's Mom at the event, and because Dom was there, handsome in uniform, now a staff sergeant in the first armored division. Then Dee treated us to a feast at Pescatore's in Franklin Park. I told Dee afterward it was becoming my favorite restaurant based solely on the parties her family throws there.

So, this weekend glows, and it feels like one of those moments I wouldn't mind living forever.