One year ago today

I posted this as a response to the Question at Open Book: Where were you?

Like many others, we'd been watching closely for several weeks as our Pope entered and left the hospital. On Easter Sunday, I had downloaded many pictures from Yahoo, wanting to hold on to the image of John Paul II's struggle to speak, his anguish and then resignation as his spoken word ministry ended. I still cannot look at those photos without sorrow for all we lost when this great man left us.

On Saturday, April 2, we watched cable coverage all morning. In the early afternoon, we had to head across town to drop my husband's motorcycle off for maintenance. None of our local radio stations were following the story (this is a very Baptist town) , so neither of us heard anything at the moment of his passing.

As I arrived at the bike shop, and was about to get out of the car, I heard the announcement on the top of the hour NPR newsbreak. I walked over to my husband, as he removed his helmet, and managed to say "We've lost him," before dissolving into tears.

We drove home quietly, and spent much of the next two weeks engrossed in the story. We prayed the novena, got up early for the funeral (which we watched on C-SPAN while following along on EWTN's website), and took advantage of the opportunities to answer questions from friends and family about the Catholic Church. A bout of pneumonia kept me home for two weeks in April, so I was able to follow the papabile pontificating, and watch the chimney-cam.

I am so grateful for John Paul II's very public life, including his public suffering, showing us both the dignity of all of life and the never-failing mercy and love of God. Subito Santo!

Here's a couple of the photos.