Maureen's Weekend!

Hello all--
-Merg, your plan for a Maureen Day-- for her 60th birthday-- is a great idea. Sunday evening is a tough time for travel, with 6Am early working on Monday morning for Dick, Jon and Rob, so I planned a Mass here in Maureen's memory. It will be at 5PM Saturday night at Sacred Heart. Dick and I are lectors and Father will mention that the mass is for Maureen.

I would have loved to been with you to see Brady Bundles serving at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. With our love and prayers honoring Maureen on Saturday and Sunday in Indy and Vincennes and (Seattle) ---we can all be assured some happy moments, remembering her beauty---inside and out....those reflections are certainly visible in her granddaughters, and daughters of course!

Sharing the memories of her and being in communion with all of you in her honor will make it a very special weekend. About that Red Velvet Cake.....YUM! I guess I am going to have to come through on this end as well.....

This makes me want to make Toll House Cookie dough and serve it up with spoons, while doing the "Pony" dance in the kitchen, or play my Simon and Garfunkle CD---Scarboughro Fair and Puff the Magic Dragon (I'll bet the NUNS didn't know what that song was about) ..I remember her singing those songs with the St. Rose choir at the Mother Daughter Banquet at Sacred Heart when she was in High School. I was so proud because she was so beautiful, and I told everyone she was my aunt --"who was prettier than Mary Tyler Moore".

She was my Confirmation Sponsor when I was in the 4th grade. She read the book "Little Women" one Christmas afternoon after we had dinner, and I couldn't believe anyone could read a huge book like that in one sitting. It's weird that I would have such a vivid memory of this...(must be trauma), but when I was 3-4 years old she babysat one Halloween for us (Dan, Jon and me) on State Street. She made us sit in the dark, in the bathroom, on the floor, because we ran out of candy, and she was tired of answering the door, so we were supposed to pretend we weren't home.

She worked at Rainbow Beach and coined the phrase "Petts', Shepard's and Haag's Please leave the pool, so we can close and go home" She told us one day that a new chemical was put in the water and if we peed in the pool our bathing suits would turn purple...then she laughed all afternoon as we all made several trips for the first time to the shower house for potty breaks.

She tried to pluck a black hair on her chin without tweezers in the dressing room before Jennifer's wedding, and announced to everyone that she had only managed to curl it. I laughed every time I looked at her in the church, until she Boohooed out loud as Jennifer walked down the isle, and then permission was granted for real emotion.

She tried to organize a Fart contest with the cousins --adults I might add---While visiting in a room at the Adams reunion at Spring Mill. In my prudish fashion I foiled the idea by announcing that I never farted--especially in public. She didn't believe me when I told her I had not even farted in front of Dick and we had been married about 8 years, so I certainly wasn't going to flagellate in front of 2nd cousins from Michigan and Pennsylvania. I think I left the room in embarrassment that she had pulled all that secret information out of me. Who has those kind of discussions in their 30's with cousins you only see every two years?

I know there are more great stories. I can still see her singing Lollipop..... No one could do stage like Maureen. On or off! Let's Fwd more Marn stories in her honor back and forth this weekend....We could go on for days...Jude you probably have the greatest and most unmentionable.

Oh!--one more....She took Dan, Jon and me to a St.Louis Cardinal baseball game. Mom fried chicken and we lugged the big cooler to the stadium entrance....we were told the cooler was to big to bring in so we were heading back to the car and she decided we would just eat on the lawn...signs posted ...no picnicking.....we finished lunch in a hurry before we were discovered...when we arrived to our seats in the top tier ...all the way up people yelled out--"Hey it's the PICNICKERS" Maureen just said--"yeah, that would be us". The main highlight of this story is...our huge cooler was still on the grass where we left it after the game...I believe it was next to the statue of Stan Musual. Who else has that kind of confidence in mankind?....or laziness...she didn't like my suggestion to take it back to the car.

Ah Nuts! Who has more fun than US!
Have a great weekend everyone!
God's Blessings,
Zoe