We painted the Youth Center together, a nice white. We got donated furniture and games to fill the center up. There was a bar called the E Street Bar, and we even started a dance team. Mr. M helped out with the annual "Welcome the Child" christmas play we put on as well as "Way of the Cross", a Good Friday play. We did the Relay for Life together. So many things, I can't even remember them all. So many great memories, and Mr. M the unifier and shining light that made us a group.
He was always at the entrance to the church whenever we came to mass with a hug and a kiss on the head. Even after I moved away to college, it always felt like I never left when I would come to mass during breaks. He'd ask me about school and our brief exchanges were always ones that would fill my heart.
Thinking about it, I don't know much about Mr. M's life, I knew his mother had passed away a few years before. We visited the nursing home she was in and spent time with the other residents there. I know he was great friends with my mom, and though I am sad in my own missing of him; it hurts more to know that my mother lost one of her greatest friends. She was on her way to Egypt with my father when she found out, and I know it must have been so hard for her that she missed the funeral.
I wasn't able to go to the funeral either, because of NACA, I can't remember the last time I saw Mr. M. Some random Sunday during the winter break if that. I didn't see him much since I worked Sunday nights during the break. The last concrete memory was of Mary and Pat's wedding. The only picture I have of him with me at school, since all the others are in the Youth Center or in some box at home.
This picture was taken in the Youth Center, our hand prints on those white walls we painted together. I will not be able to walk into mass through those front doors without thinking of him. He was a great soul, and a wonderful man who will be greatly missed.
Rise above the unimaginable,
Alice Shea
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