COMEMMORATING MY MOTHER : JULY 5, 1922 -DECEMBER 2, 1982.....THE "JOSEPHINE TREATMENT" 2011 TODAY GOES TO ???...........

Twenty nine years ago today, my beloved Mother, Josephine Virginia Corey Feusi Powers, passed from this life at age 60, to the promise and hope of eternal life.  I was a first year seminarian at St. Kieran's College in Kilkenny, Ireland, when on November 26, 1982, on less than a day's notice I flew home to Sacramento, as the final days of my mother's life ebbed away.  Her five year battle with both diabetes and leukemia, flared up that October, setting in motion life ending complications.  When I asked her chief doctor the day after my arrival home to square with me, he told me they could no longer get and keep both the leukemia and diabetes under control simultaneously.  Success at controlling one, would lead the other to rage uncontrollably.  On the night of December 1, I sent my father, sisters, and brothers, home, to get a solid night's rest and remained at Mercy General Hospital with my mother, sensing the imminence of her death.  I sat at her bedside holding her hand, and praying with her until morning, when at 7 a.m., as the nurses came in to tend to her, I went up to the hospital chapel and prayed.  In short order, I found myself naturally and without pause - praying that God would take her home to heaven, as it was increasingly apparent that she was ready to go and peaceful wih dying. Fourteen hours later, at 9:20 p.m., she passed away.....Twenty nine years later I still miss her greatly, but through these nearly three decades, I also know she has been with me through my formation and ordained ministry, in the bonds and spirit of Love that never end, and as our Catholic Funeral ritual states, "Do not unravel with death".  I will offer my morning Mass for her eternal soul as I do each year, and will also honor her memory with what I have come to call, "The Josephine Treatment".  Roses were my mother's favorite flowers.  Especially the roses she grew herself in our front yard.  In the first decade plus after my mother's death, I would mark her anniversary by taking roses to her grave in St. Mary's Cemetery, in South Sacramento.  1 Red Rose for every year she has been gone; and 1 White Rose clustered among them in the center representing Eternal Life.  On December 2, 1996, when I was Pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, in Oroville, I was in my car on a harshly cold, wet, pouring rain, day - with fourteen red roses and one white rose, laying on my backseat; when a serious thought about how I was carrying out my mother's anniversary commemoration struck me.  I decided that day instead of placing the roses on her grave in the midst of winter; to present them to a woman each year in her circle of friends and mine, who exemplies her values and virtues, making my mother's anniversary roses a living memorial, acknowledging her, by affirming someone else.  Since 1997, the recipients of the Josephine Treatment have included wonderful Catholic-Christian women from Noreen Maher, and Sara Nava, to Patricia Hornback and Karin Geach, and ten others in between them.  This year's "Josephine Treatment", goes to a three decade friend of mine whose personal grace. spiritual strength, and selfless love, are a very valiant exemplification of my mother, Josephine.
                                                                                 I am proud to announce that My Mother's 29th Anniversary Roses,  29 Red; and 1 White; are today presented to the 2011 Recipient, ...........KIM WELCH !!!!!!!!!!!  The wife, now widow, of my late Sacramento State University Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity brother and Associated Students Incorporated  colleague,  Captain Brian Charles Welch.  The Love Kim shared with and for Brian, and the Caregiving she immeasurably provided him during the decade of his struggle with ALS-Lou Gehrig's Disease, and the resilience under pressure and grief, she has shown, more than make her the outstanding chioce for the, "Josephine Treatment", this year.....Congratulations and God Bless You, Kim.....Love You Forever Mother...........Eternal Peace,   Troy David