Many years ago there was a priest who gave a sermon on doing
the Christian thing. He described a little boy on a three-wheeler bicycle
riding around in the heat. He looked tired and hot and a passing neighbor who
saw the child was moved enough to get the child a glass of water which the
child consumed gratefully. It was more than an act of kindness.
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| La Principessa |
As we prepared for our visit to Burbank to see my beautiful
Granddaughter, TLW (The Little Woman) was selecting a baptismal dress for La
Principessa, and had two. Both were hand made and beautiful, by two beautiful
people for our kids in the past. My sister-in-law Maureen made one of what
appeared to be lace and one that was crocheted by my mother. Mom’s dress was a
little warmer than Maureen’s. TLW told TLC (The Lovely Courtney) my beautiful
daughter-in-law that she could decide on which one to use since the weather was
warm in Burbank in the summer.
TLW asked me if I would be upset that Maureen’s dress was
used if it was too warm, rather than Mom’s. My feeling was it would be so
beautiful if she did wear her great grandmother’s dress, but I understood if
she didn’t since it was so warm in Burbank. After all, the baby’s comfort was
far more important than my emotions, and besides the dress from Maureen was
made by family too and was beautiful, not store bought.
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| Aunt Maureen (In the wedding dress) |
Having lost my mom just a few months ago, I felt down and
sad that she wasn’t here to see or for me to tell her about the Christening. So
many times I would think, wait until Mom sees the pictures, or wait until Mom
hears about this or that, then the reality that she was no longer here on
Earth. Sadness was gripping me and I was in mourning, but didn’t realize fully
how much so I was.
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| Being dressed |
TLC, Larissa, a great gal and wonderful friend of TLC who
was the godmother of La Principessa (Darby Shea) and I went in one car to the
church as the others went before us to Mass. TLC took both dresses and would
decide once we were at the church. In the back of the church was a dressing
room where we took the baby.
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| AH! |
I didn’t want to look but knew I had to take pictures of
them dressing the baby, and the haunt of my mother’s face was in my way. The
thought was that it would have been a wonderful connection for Mom to have her hand-made
dress put on Darby. As I looked through the lens, something seemed strange,
there in the hands of TLC was Mom’s dress! Courtney was doing something very special
for her daughter, making the connection for me, my mother to my grandchild!
Even as I write this, tears seem to well up in me and I had to walk away for a
moment to collect myself.
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| Larissa, La Principessa and TLC |
As the movie says in it’s title: La Vita E’ Bella, Life Is
Beautiful, and Courtney, TLC made it possible. Thank you Courtney, you don’t
know how special you really became by that glass of water.
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