Please pray

Please pray for my friend Rachel and her husband Marvin--Sophia's dear wonderful godparents who live in Kansas--and their family. Marvin lost his mother about three months ago, and now this past weekend his only brother Charlie as well.

We just saw Rachel and her kids (Marvin was on retreat) last week on our way home from Colorado. I was so exhausted from the trip I don't feel like I was completely present, although it was, as always, so good to see her and their new baby (two months younger than Leo) and their boys (Maeve's age, and between Maeve and Leo). The kids didn't fight much and I felt refreshed when we left that morning to head home.

I met Marvin's mother, only a few times, most surrounding their wedding, but I also stayed at their house when Rachel came back into town for a brief time during her two year Jesuit volunteer commitment in Nicaragua. That was the only time I met Charlie as well.

You know, Mike has two brothers and a sister; I have two sisters and a brother. Both of us have both parents still living and well; we each have a paternal grandmother still alive. I have a niece and Mike has two. And so forth. Big families. It's easy to take it for granted. Rachel is an only child and both her parents have died; now Marvin's brother and their children's only uncle is gone as well.

I am just one person, we are just one family. But besides the connection with Sophia, I need to remember to remember to be there, be here. To not lose touch, as it gets so easy to do with kids and school and neighborhood and church and so forth. Rachel has been so dear to me, since college, and I need to remember that Kansas City just isn't so far away. And I can type and make a telephone call.

I wish I could be there, Rachel. Let me know what I can do.