Part 1 Of Our Mother's Celebration Of Life Was Yesterday, March 24, 2023 It Was Beautiful. Praise God.

How can I cry heavy tears

when I know my mother is in heaven? I did get a tear or two while they played the song, "On Eagle's Wings." The mass was beautiful and even family back in Croatia were able to livestream the mass. I also heard from friends that are old and new in friendship telling me that the mass was beautiful when they participated in the livestream of the mass. They also told me the eulogy I presented was beautiful also.

See, Holy Spirit & I composed the eulogy main portion on 1/21/2023 between 5:09am-5:23am. After sharing it with my sibling, son and sister-in-law on the way back to Ohio we added a few more finishing touches to complete it. Please know these added touches were also Holy Spirit breathed upon. See, He does and continues to work through others also if you see the golden nuggets presented to you.

I will share bits and pieces with you today, 3/25/2023. Two of my children read on the altar. One read a scripture reading, 2 Timothy 4:6-8 and the other read Universal Prayer with response "Lord, hear our prayer." Along with 

other family members participating in this touching mass for our mother and the grandchildren's Nana.

My eyes were drawn to the ceiling area near the altar as Father was participating in the mass around 9:45am. When this happens to me and my eyes are drawn upward that means I am sensing angels are there. God is faithful and angels were there. Behind the altar is a stained glass window and the first section of wooden type ceiling is where I heard the words I wrote down in one of the booklets. " I looked up behind the altar above the stained glass window on the altar angels were there & heard Holy Spirit say she is looking over the balcony in heaven with a huge smile on her face as Father prayed @ the altar praying @ the altar before communion." I knew right then and there Holy Spirit had in place the moments following communion the eulogy to be shared was holy and pleasing unto God.

Well, you all know I am not currently a practicing Catholic so just maybe I was a little rusty on timing when I had to go to the lectern for the eulogy. Once on the altar I noticed they were still finishing up altar post communion to prepare for the closing moments of the mass. I looked over and then Father nodded @ me to go ahead. Hey, I am not a preacher behind a pulpit all the time but you gotta give me some credit here that I was not operating like a runaway train. I knew protocol enough to not just advance not within the order of the mass right.

The 2 "live" Croatian songs played @ the mass were beautiful. The same combo played at the luncheon that followed the mass. There were several of us in the family that performed in the tamburitza group with the members of the combo when we were in grade and high school and we all had a group picture taken of us all together. In the event there would be a tamburitza reunion one day we all jotted down our contact info.

At the close of our mother's luncheon our friends called my sister and I up to where they were playing to share a special song they selected just for us. I have a copy of it sharing the words both in English & Croatian. They are beautiful words that will touch your heart also.

I think that about covers everything except 1 more thing that took place that day. When we were in high school we had to purchase books so us cousins that attended the same all girls Catholic high school would share our books. While cleaning out an English book she found my notes I took for a class on Hamlet the play. It also had 1 of my graded tests. Thank God I received an A on that test. I was joking with my cousins how bad it would have looked if we shared that and there would have been a bad grade. I think the teacher of the class while grading the test circled a word I spelled wrong. It should have been supposedly and I wrote it as suppossedly. Do you see where I get my passion for spelling correctly when I write. No problem though because I picked up a bonus point by finding in the test itself the misspelled word. The misspelled word was "sololiquy". Treasure moments you have with loved ones and always treasure those valuable memories tucked away in your heart ok.