I thank the people who have kept me fro wasting my life. goofing off.

Monday, 1/23/17

I am going to cheat today, turning away from Monday’s Bible readings, and turning instead to saying thanks for all the great loves and the great examples that have enriched my life. I am 89 today, and I’d like to thank the people who have made my life worthwhile.

My mother had been Kitty Callahan, orphaned, and raised by doting uncles and aunts who sent Kitty for piano lessons.

My Dad was seven when his father died, leaving young Fran to work as a delivery boy, supporting his mother and his little brother and sister.

After Fran and Kitty eloped in 1913, they both worked as telegraph operators, finding a house for the six kids who came to them, and for Fran’s mother and sister who moved in with them. We never thought of ourselves as poor. Fran and Kitty were a couple who knew how to “make do.”   

Kitty, living with a mother-in-law who didn’t like her, kept happy by playing our piano, often with me next to her on her bench.

I’ve always felt that happiness comes from developing our potentials. That makes me grateful to the Dominican nuns and the Irish priest who kept me from wasting my life goofing off.