THE 28TH ANNIVERSARY OF MY MOTHER, JOSEPHINE VIRGINIA COREY FEUSI POWERS - JULY 5, 1922 - DECEMBER 2, 1982..........

At this hour twenty eight years today, Thursday December 2, 1982, which was also the Firsr Week of Advent, I left my mother's hospital room at Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento, where I had stayed overnight praying with her, to go upstairs to the Chapel to say my Morning Prayer.  As I knelt their before the Blessed Sacrament in meditation, I found myself praying for something I thought could never be possible.  I asked the Lord to take my mother, Josephine Virginia Corey Feusi Powers home to heaven, for in my heart I knew her five year struggle with Diabetes and Leukemia were all but over, and even at only age 60, she was ready to pass from this life.  Within the hour my father,sisters and brothers, arrived at the hospital, for I had sent them home the night before for a good night's sleep, knowing harder, longer, darker, days lay straight ahead.   We spent the day around and at my mother bedside, as she ebbed away.  And at 9:20 pm, she expired, and her life was over.  For the first fourteen years I arranged for, or took, Memorial Roses to her grave in St. Mary's Cemetery  in South Sacramento.  One red rose for each year she has been departed, and one white rose representing eternal life.  Then on a very wet and windy December 2, driving from Oroville to Sacramento to place the Memorial Roses on her grave, I realized it was a very sensible thing to be doing on such an inclement day.  On my way back to Oroville I decided their was a better way to commemorate her and share the Memorial Roses, by giving them to a living person in my circle of friends.  And so since my mother's anniversary in 1997, I have had Procida Florist in downtown Sacramento, known for the quality of their flowers, deliver the JVCFP Anniversary Memorial Roses to the recipient I choose to share them with.  Noreen Maher, Sara Nava, Ramona Bugatto, Teres Mugnaini, Louise Bartridge, Mary Ann Pujals, Kay McDaid, Brigid Mullins, Arlene Martin, Leticia Garcia, Sister Kathleen Horgan, RSM, Tammy Herrera, Sally McNamara, Deborah McNamara, Patricia Hornback, have received them the past 13 years..........This year's chosen recipient of what I refer to as the, "Josephine Treatment", is : .......KARIN GEACH !!!!!!!!!!  She will have them this afternoon.  28 red roses, marking my mother Josephine's 28th anniversary today; and 1 white rose representing her eternal life.   Karin, her husband Roger, and their children Kelle, Ryan, Kristen, and Rodd, their spouses and children, have been a very special part of my life for more than thirty years.  She exemplifies the spirit by which my mother lived and is a gracious and generous friend, fellow believer, and always supportive of me and my priestly ministry.  Thank You and Congratulations, Karin - on being this year's worthy recipient of my mother, Josephine Virginia Corey Feusi Powers' Anniversary Memorial Roses.  God's Choicest Blessings As I Celebrate My Mother's Life,   Fr.  Troy