It’s been an especially rich Lent for me. Possibly because of that, I haven’t felt moved much to talk or “share.”
Somehow this week’s arts and culture column has everything to do with the Easter Vigil.
Here’s how it begins:
Last week an old friend called, a woman I’ll call “Sylvie” who I met decades ago in recovery.
We’d see each other in meetings at 3rd and Oxford in Koreatown, or at 6th and Bronson on the edge of Hancock Park.
Sylvie has a deep spirituality and a grounded belief in God. She’s also not able to work much and every so often will have a mental break and have to be treated at a hospital or psych ward.
As of a year or so ago, she’s been in a nursing home out of state. The first time she called me from there, I asked, “Do you have a roommate?” — a roommate in my mind being synonymous with extreme torture.
“I have three,” she chuckled.
READ THE WHOLE PIECE HERE.
This was a wonderful piece. Thank you for writing it.
What a lovely read! Both of you are giving each other the gift of presence. Thank you for sharing it.
A joyful Easter awaits us!
Kate
Thank you for this. God bless Sylvie, and all of us. I am wishing you a very wonderful blessed Easter, Heather.
Bye for now. So perfect and just what I needed to read this Easter morning. Thank you.
This “saved my life” today as you put it. Blessings on you & Sylvie.
Great article and very relatable to me. In AA you never know which day you’ll be the giver or receiver, maybe both. I hope it’s okay here to praise your book “Prayers of Desperation”. I purchased this several years ago and loved it so much I took it to a meeting and lent it out. Fast forward to now. She kept it thru COVID when our meeting was shutdown. Then for about a year she’d say weekly “I’ll bring your book back”. Believe it or not, when I’d given up and was thinking about buying another one, I saw her last week and she handed my book back! I started rereading that same day and was touched and inspired even more deeply than before. I can’t thank you enough for sharing your talent and love so generously with everyone. I am a Catholic convert myself and was grateful to find that AA and the church converge into one safe home. God bless you very much.
(cont.) make that book “Holy Desperation”, Heather. I have a little memory fog, it seems!