This is the first Easter without my older sister, Maureen, who died last year.
Maureen loved this day. She was perpetually child-like, even though she turned 60 years old just before last Easter. Maureen loved Easter baskets, hot cross buns, Easter Mass, family dinner with ham, ham and more ham and, of course, chocolate bunnies. Actually, Maureen had the ability to love each day, even though her life was hard, filled with one challenge after another.
On Friday, as I prayed the Stations of the Cross at home, I was reminded of Maureen’s suffering – how she was condemned as a child, bullied for her disabilities and not fitting in. I’ll never forget the afternoon we walked home from school when a neighborhood boy jumped her from behind and tackled her to the ground. He covered her head with green burrs and took off. All I could do was scream. Shortly after, I sat in the kitchen and watched my mother gingerly try to pick, and cut, each burr from Maureen’s beautiful long red hair. My mother was so loving, rubbing her head and telling her it was okay, that it’s just hair and it will grow back. What Maureen didn’t see were the tears streaming down my mother’s cheeks. Mine too.
Praying through the Stations, I thought about the challenges Maureen had at school – not being able to read well, not being able to hear well. Glasses and hearing aids never really did the trick. Every day she was on the life treadmill, just trying to keep up. Her cross was so heavy and she kept falling down time and time again.
Maureen’s disabilities and medical conditions haunted her throughout her life. But my mother loved her through them. I can honestly say, I learned how to love and to mother from witnessing their close bond over the years. When Jesus meets his mother at Station Four, I thought about how my mother must have felt, watching her oldest daughter suffer so much. It was no wonder my mother had a devotion to the Blessed Mother.
Last May, before Maureen’s earthly life was to come to an end, she fought mightily to overcome every ailment imaginable. Each day was marked by sickness, seizures and more struggle. During one seizure episode, she could barely speak. Knowing her speech was becoming more and more compromised, she looked at us and said, “If I get to a point when I can’t speak anymore, I want you to know that I love you all so much.”
Maureen fought with gusto because she never wanted to leave us. But on May 15th, she ascended into heaven to be with Our Father and her father, leaving behind her sisters, her only brother and, of course, our mom. But what she really left behind was her deep love for us. She wanted us to know that until she took her last breath.
As I finished praying the Stations of the Cross, I knew Maureen had given me, and now maybe you, a resurrection of spirit. Although our lives are filled with challenges, especially today as we fight this global pandemic, our faith reminds us that the love of God and our love for each other is all we need. That is the hope of Easter.