The wisdom of Noah

The wisdom of Noah

Yesterday before mass started, my little family and I happened to run into our pastor before church.  Father was happy to see us and wished us all a good morning.  Then he leaned over to my 7-year-old son and said, “Now you must be Raphael.”

Longtime readers may recall that my son Raphael was stillborn in 2002 and is buried in the local Catholic cemetery.

My first thought on hearing Father say that was one of gratitude!! He remembered Raphael’s name and that he existed!  That’s the type of thing that always touches the heart of the mom who has lost a child, even at an awkward time such as this. As busy as my pastor is, I felt quite blessed by that.  

My second thought was how Noah was going to respond to that.  I shouldn’t have worried.

“No Father, I’m Noah.  Raphael is dead, actually only his body is dead and he’s in heaven, but we go to visit him a lot anyway.”  

And then he smiled and went to catch up with his sister as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.  Father looked at me and I just smiled back.  It was all good.