7-quick takes

Join the other Quicktakers at This Ain’t the Lyceum.

1. Some of the most vociferous proponents for vaccines have been touting that Catholics are allowed to use vaccines even though they are derived from the fetal cell lines of aborted fetuses. That’s true. However, Catholics are NOT REQUIRED to use such vaccines if they go against their well formed consciences.  I blogged about that last year here. 

2.
We started our vacation by visiting the cemetery Mr. Pete’s maternal grandparents are in.  Their names were Bernice and John McGuirk.  Bernice died at age 22 from septicemia following childbirth. John died five years later at age 29, but we aren’t sure of his cause of death.

Her daughter, Mr. Pete’s mom, lived with her grandmother until her grandmother’s death and then was on her own. Her baby brother lived with other relatives. As a kid, Mr. Pete doesn’t ever remember visiting these grave sites.

But by the wonder of Ancestry.com, I was able to find out where they were buried and after checking with Google and my Maps app, we tracked them down.

Interestingly, we spent about an hour looking for the graves, only to discover that we had parked right in front of them!  That’s the second time that has happened to me at a cemetery.  I must pay more attention next time I am grave hunting!

Bernice’s grave was covered in some kind of a flaky substance. Mr. Pete thinks the stones were once shaded and this was a dead moss. He and the kids cleaned it off.

It looked much better when they were done.

Then we said a prayer for them, which was a moving moment for all of us, before we hit the road again.

3.
Rosie is named for her Aunt Dot.  So I make sure to try and get an annual picture of those two together. Aunt Dot is 95, but still very physically fit and sharp.  We had a very nice visit with her!

4.
The day of my family reunion, some of my extended family went tubing down a little creek that empties into the Manistee River.  Here we are standing with second and third cousins!  We’re lucky our family still gets together every year!

5.
  
I sure missed this little one while we were gone though!

6.  As I was looking at curriculum, I found this interesting course.  It concentrates on saints and virtues – and it’s FREE!!

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7.
Lastly, every time I tell a mom with older children that my married son moved eight hours away, they all, without exception, look a little sad and ask how I’m doing with that!  I have not had that kind of reaction with people since losing my mother six years ago and it was certainly unexpected.

Yet, I think moms who have older kids are used to letting go, a little bit at a time, and they know that the ultimate “let go” is to have your child move so far away from you.

So I think it was very special that one of my mom friends got this picture of me kissing my son at the wedding reception, at the end of the mother-son dance. It sort of really was the last real time we got to spend together alone (albeit in front of a hall full of people).  I’m so happy she got this shot!