Flashback Friday: Mary's Song

Hey, blog peeps...

So, I've decided to implement a new feature here on the Gitzen Girl blog. I'm not going to lie, I put absolutely no thought or planning into this. It's just an idea that popped into my head as I was trying to think of something to write about so I thought I'd just run with it. As Julia Roberts so eloquently said in Pretty Woman, "I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of girl."   :)

What is this exciting new feature, you ask? It's called Flashback Friday and every week I'm going to post old photos and stories about my family, or my childhood, or maybe re-publish some old posts that new readers might not have seen... or whatever random kind of flashback my brain can come up with. If you have suggestions feel free to throw them at me since obviously nothing here is set in stone.

For this first installment I want to tell you all about my mom's best friend since I was a little girl, Mary Burns. Or MaryB as I refer to her. She calls me Sarsie in a way that only she can. For as close as my mom and MaryB have always been, I think God knew what he was doing when he put my life in contact with hers. She has lived with multiple sclerosis and has gone through so many ups and downs over the years. She has gone from the extremes of walking fine or with a cane to being wheelchair bound and back again. She has been completely blind and her sight has been restored. She knows what it is to suffer and she knows what it is to celebrate. And she has maintained a faithful spirit throughout all of it.

  
Me and MaryB, November 2003

Yesterday (Thursday, 20th) was MaryB's 69th birthday, and mom said they had a fun dinner out with her kids and grandkids... and I couldn't help but smile to think of good times we've had in years past. Mom and MaryB would "do coffee" at the Pizza Hut in town when I was little and I was an active member of their little social circle. I was attached to my mom's hip anyway, but when she sent me off to preschool my first question every day when she would pick me up was: "Did you and MaryB go for coffee without me?" Mother assured me they would never do anything of the sort and I was crushed on the day they let it slip they were meeting on the sly.

I eventually got my own special connection with MaryB, however. My junior year in high school I asked her to be my confirmation sponsor, and it was at the celebration dinner that I came to a realization that about put everyone on the floor laughing in hysterics.

When mom and I would ride into town for our coffee dates with MaryB we would always sing on our way there. It was a little tune that went as follows:

Father, we adore you. Lay our lives before you. How we love you. Jesus, we adore you. Lay our lives before you. How we love you.
Spirit, we adore you. Lay our lives before you. How we love you.
Mary, we adore you. Lay our lives before you. How we love you.

I was telling everyone the story of how we used to have coffee with MaryB and how we would sing to her on our way into town. Mom looked at me like I had three heads and suddenly it clicked to me that we weren't singing to MaryB... we were singing to the Blessed Virgin!

But can't you hear the confusing similarities in a little kid's head? "Mary we adore you" and "Mary B adore you" sound pretty darn similar when you're four years old.

I was, however, 16 years old before I figured out that my love and adoration for MaryB didn't actually inspire a song.

But I do think she was pretty flattered by the company she was keeping in my mind and my heart... and, apparently, in my songs. Happy Birthday, MaryB! I really do adore you...

:)