“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” —Pablo Picasso
My Top Ten list this year will be 10 individuals I have been fortunate to know and to love and who made a difference in my life. My gratitude is deep and meaningful. Without their love, I would be a different person. They filled my soul with cheerful words and actions. There are another dozen who were tangential and meaningful, but space precludes their inclusion. I will write another entire article on Mother.
• My father. I was fortunate to have a father who gave me his unconditional love. He was a tall Swede with a fine sense of humor and kind heart. I have loved him with every breath I take. His death May 10, 1987 forever changed my world.
Uncle Emmett photo
• Uncle Emmett. What a swell fellow he was. A confirmed bachelor, a man about town, a postman in Chicago. I loved him and his vocabulary ever since I returned from Girl Scout camp and he asked me how my bivouac was. Without his camera I would not have any childhood photographs. He is buried in a military cemetery outside St. Petersburg, Fla..
• Aunt Helen. When God sent an angel to earth, he called her Helen. I was her best pal and made cookies with her, helped her in the garden, ate popcorn with her and drank 7-Up. She was a cashier at Szold’s for decades and was deeply loved by all who knew her. She would give me white gloves to wear to Sunday Mass and change for the collection. She poured Black Forest green pine oil as she ran my bath and taught me to be kind. October 25, 1970 she died.
• Sister Patty. It was she who tucked me in at night and I would ask if she had checked for monsters under the bed and in the closet. She assured me she had and there was none. I slept peacefully next to her in the upstairs bedroom on Fairoaks. She taught me to play Canasta and we have played it for decades.
• Dr. Norman Powers, M.D. He was the family doctor who made house calls and charged $7 for the visit. He took care of me until early adulthood. He wore only sandals and a red plaid cape and was gregarious, dashing, and smart.
• John Higgins. We were together 17 years and I thought he was god. Even after the divorce, we remained friends because we had been originally from the Academy of Our Lady and Spalding High School years.
• Sister Sharon. My principal at Sacred Heart School. She backed her teachers, cared about the school, and loved me. No matter what I asked her for, she said yes, even if she rolled her eyes once again at one of my requests. She passed this life September 28, 2016.
• Living in Belfast, Northern Ireland for a year meant friendships were formed that lasted 30 years. Nuala, Diana, and Jim, stand out. Jim was a former IRA (Irish Republican Army) member who became my driver and even got me into Long Kesh Prison to interview an IRA member incarcerated for murder. Diana was an American married to an Irishman who lived in Ballylesson and invited us to her home all that year because her daughters played with mine. Nuala retired as a teacher after raising her six children. She loved gardening and cooking fine meals for us.
• The adult literacy volunteers numbered in the 300s for 10 straight years, but there were some who became dear friends. My troika included Bruno, Jim, and Ed, who did so much for their students over the years. Bruno was the gold standard and I would have trusted him with my life. Ed was the consummate gentleman who would confide in me knowing nothing would ever be repeated. Jim and his sister, Marge, became the best of friends, became family.
• Don. We met at a singles dance April 1, 1982, a rain-filled Thursday night. He wore a three-piece brown suit and asked me to dance. He told me he was a former Marine and now was a special agent with the IRS. He had my attention really fast! In some ways he reminded me of Uncle Emmett, with his dash and flair and his vocabulary. He was highly intelligent and loved to beat me at Scrabble. I count some of the happiest hours of my life enjoyed with Don.