All Soul's Day is nearly upon us once again as "Christian-Catholics".
The good thing about being both a "Christian" and "Catholic" is how we remember those we loved and lost the year before and after "All Soul's Day" pasted last year.
Remarkable, but Those of the Wicca" spiritualit have a similar remembrance day in "Samhain" which is welcoming in the Autumn and also remembering their dearly departed the year before.
This past year I have lost three loved ones.
I lost my dear nephew, Jayden William Griffin, son of my dear late Jennifer Renee.
The tragic thing here, is that Jayden did not have to die needlessly due to "Shaken Baby Syndrome" in the hands of my dear late Jenn's Aunt Marcy, second husband, Tom Cain.
My dear late Jenn, entrusted her baby son to raised by the only person in her family who was kind enough to take Jayden in, so he would not become another statistic in the hands of Arizona Child Protective Services.
Not two weeks after Jayden, age 2.5 months old was taken to live in Catonsville, Maryland, where Jenn, herself was born and grew up. Baby Jayden was murdered in the hands of Tom Cain.
I lost my dear John, on December 3, 2002, one month after All Soul's Day" of 2002.
He called me from St. Francis Hospital, in Evanston, Illinois. He was crying and asked me to come to the hospital.
He took me by the hand and said crying," The doctors tell me my kidneys are failing and there is nothing they can do for me. I am dying. I don't want to die."
We cried together. We cried together for a long time. Then he asked me to promise him, I would take care of his burial arrangements.
I dried my tears and told him, I would see to his last wishes and I did carry them out. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life.
John passed away on December 3, 2002.
On Saturday, December 6, 2002, I had The "Christian Mass of Burial" for him.
I had him cremated and I have his URN on my chester drawers. It is a simple black URN. I have a crocheted cross someone gave me adorning it.
On one side of my chester drawers is an angel doll with pink wings. On the other side, is a silk flower arrangement I made to send to my dear late Jennifer, and I was never able to send it to her in time. She died before I was able to send it.
My dear late Jennifer passed away on our sister's, Kalandra's, 20th birthday. Jenn's last words to all of us were to "stay strong" for her and to "stay together".
Jennifer passed away due to complications of brain cancer on April 15, 2003, and Robert, Drew, and I were the last ones to talk to her.
The last words she said to me were "I love you sis, I love you , Karissa."
The last words she told my boyfriend, Robert were, "Take care my gurl, Robert". He has kept his promise to our dear late Jenn.
This coming All Soul's Day" I will bring in three corsages made up of one yellow rose in memory of my dear late, Jennifer, one white carnation in the memory of my dear late Jayden, and one red carnation in the memory of my dear late John, one will be tied with a yellow ribbon, two with a blue ribbon.
When they call the names up I will walk to the vase where the flowers are placed and put the corsages into the water.
John, Jayden, and Jennifer, will all be placed in the same Book of Remembrance of The Dead at the same parish, I became a Christian-Catholic on Easter Vigil in 1996, in the parish of Saint Ita in Chicago, Illinois.
I will never ever forget John, Jayden, and Jennifer. They all very much alive and as long I keep them in my heart. They will live forever.
At that same parish, my dear Rocky's was placed in 1996, and in 1998, my dear late Grandma, Ihlae Hogan's name was placed.
All of them I loved and I know one day I will joined sitting at the feet of our savior, Jesus Christ.
