I Have Done It At Last!

[gness]

When I started to worry about my mother's mind....about twelve years ago, I had a feeling she was lying to me or confused about attending Mass every day as she had always done.
I asked her parish priest to please keep an eye on her and let me know if she was missing Mass and all the other things she had been involved in during her sixty years at the same church. Mother's Union....Legion of Mary....etc..
He refused....because of the privacy laws and data protection....he said.

When she went into a home in Desborough about eight years ago I phoned to tell him saying she'd like a visit and communion.....I was told Corby did not look after Desbrorough.....I should contact a priest in Kettering....he wasn't prepared to travel to Desborough.
She didn't want this....she wanted her own priests she said...the ones she knew from her parish. (She didn't like the Kettering lot as she called them.)

When I tried again my request was refused but I was invited to tea to see if I could be persuaded to return to the fold.... :-)

I gave it another go today by email.....a long email.....and had a reply from a new priest I think....
He'll be more than happy to visit her..... :-)

Not only that......he has given me a blessing for Easter! x

[tonyav]

.he has given me a blessing for Easter! x

No egg or bunny though, gness.

Very well done for sorting that for mother.

[Cloverjo]

I'm shocked by this. I don't know how far away the places you mentioned are from each other, but what kind of priest wouldn't travel a little to see one of his flock, who needed him? (Sorry if that's an offensive term.)

[gness]

He won't get me back with a blessing, Tony.....now a shed load of choccy bunnies........ ;-)

[sunny-dave]

Well done - it is just (but only just) possible that your mother will get some comfort from the visit - but she deserves to have them make the effort anyway.

Dx

[ Blessing for Easter - is that the

Wallet Watch Spectacles ... etc ? ]

[tonyav]

I agree with jo.

[Cloverjo]

Just looked it up. 18 miles from Corby to Desborough. Jeez!

[gness]

Seven miles from Kettering to Desborough, Jo.....eight miles from Corby to Desborough.....sad isn't it....x

She's in a bad way, Dave.....but something in me tells me she might just respond to her priest a little bit....strange things happen. Even if she does in her own way and we don't see it it's good to know that what she wants in her last years is happening....and should have always been.....

I know that blessing, Dave...I jolly well hope not!

[gness]

From the Presbytery to her care home is 8 miles, Jo.......and 18 minutes by car...x

[jourdain2]

Well done! I don't know the distances involved, but I'm glad that someone will visit so happily -and that you've had a blessing! :)

Things have changed I think and hope (not that I know much about the R.C.s!). A fairly close friend of ours is R.C., but his wife is our C of E churchwarden and he comes to our church. He said the other week that when he paid his monthly visit to the nearby R.C church he left with the feeling that the priest did not recognise him and wouldn't turn out if summoned to give him the last rites. Our lady vic. jumped in and promised to attend whenever.

Your outcome is very cheering. Maybe, just maybe, things are changing there. :)

[gness]

I don't think things are changing, J.....My email was long....polite but quite cutting beneath......
The home knows my mother would want the last rites......and I want her funeral to be held in her old church.....so I thought I'd better get the priest to familiarise himself with the route........ and me...... :-)

[vulcan42]

gness, will your mother know this new priest?

[THECORBYLOON]

That's Kettering folk for you! I hope all goes well for your Mum.

[gness]

Vulcan....my mother knows nobody now.....she can hear.....see.....and that's it.....

But I know that she'd want her priests at the ending of her life....she'd want their prayers, blessings and last rites and after giving her whole adult life to her parish I think that the least the priests from her parish can do is to visit occasionally.....
To not try to do that for her would be my failing....it may not mean anything to her......but there is a slight chance that somewhere in her lost mind it will....x

[anneasquith]

My thought also Vulcan .

[gness]

Oi! Less of that, Corby! It's the guy in Occupation Road I'm trying to stir into action.......

But you're right about Kettering folk....she had no time for the two in St. Eddies..... ;-)

[gness]

It doesn't matter, Anne.....it's what she, with her good mind, would have wanted....and what I think she deserves.....

You can't take and take from someone and then discard them when they are no longer of use......x

[THECORBYLOON]

Ah, Our Lady's, just up the road past St Andrew's C of S, I pass them on the way to work.

[gness]

That's the one, Corby......I was in St. Andrews once as a child for a wedding....we had to get a special dispensation from the Bishop to mix with all the proddies......!

[marval]

Well done for getting one of them to visit. You would think the others would have done it.

[gness]

A couple of church ladies visited once or twice about eight or nine years ago, Marval.....
I really think the priest should have made the occasional visit....but more than that they have my phone number, address and email...I would have liked a call now and again to ask after her.
They didn't, until today, know if she was dead or alive and I want to make sure, when she dies, the service is in Corby and not Kettering........if I have to do it myself!......x