It wasn’t that long ago when I was saying that we just don’t have the winters of old anymore.
In my youth, it always seemed we’d have snow on the ground from the first storm of the season until spring broke. Seeing bare ground in the middle of winter was a rarity.
Over the last decade or more, bare ground throughout the winter appears to be the norm, and I’m okay with that and to answer your question, Tracie Moss, this week’s column is about the snow.
Having all the snow we had dumped on us this past week was good enough for me for the winter. And when meteorologists told us mid-week, we many have another storm in the next day or so, I really started to get flashbacks of winters in my early days.
The world seems to stop dead in its tracks when we receive a substantial snowstorm. Schools closed, businesses close and even grocery stores have a hard time opening.
There are some businesses such as media outlets that don’t stop broadcasting or publishing. The show must go on for them.
I remember having a conversation with WBRE’s Candice Kelly during the previous snowstorm that shut everyone down. Candice not only had to be at work, but she had to stay in a hotel for the night so she could be ready for the next day’s news.
Of course, we know the Postal Service delivers in “rain, sleet or snow,” so you know you’ll get your mail.
Police departments and town maintenance workers certainly don’t get a day off from a blizzard.
Most schools are on virtual learning, so with a large snowstorm, the students still have classes. If there is a bright side of the pandemic, students had to learn to deal with schoolwork from home via a computer. Theoretically speaking, there may never be such thing as a snow day.
Even though we are getting the occasional snowstorm, some just a dusting nuisance to a crippling event, it is said we are still in a warmer than normal trend. We ended up many months where the average monthly temperature was higher than normal.
It was so great to see the sunshine come back on Thursday. The sun is so powerful in that it does much more than light the earth. Did you ever sit in front of a window on a winter day like Thursday and just let the sun’s rays kiss your face? It’s magical and even healing.
The sun for me is always a sign for hope and rebirth and life. Our planet would surely die without the sun.
The sun is ever so uplifting after days of winter clouds and the warmth just wraps its arms around you.
My obsession with the sun never ends from glorious sunrises to spectacular sunsets.
If you are reading between the lines, you can safely assume I don’t like winter and love summer. I’ve professed that love of summer months many times.
As I speak of sunsets, the sun did set for the last time on my Uncle John Callaio. He was the eldest of three boys, my dad being the middle, passed away on Jan. 29 at the age of 93.
Not even three months earlier, my dad’s baby brother, Uncle Tony Callaio, passed away at the age of 89. They are all gone now, the last of my blood uncles and aunts are gone. Growing up, you can never imagine this happening, yet here I am in life at that very point.
As he lay dying at the nursing home, I got to Facetime Fr. Paul McDonnell’s noon Mass live so he could at least hear it. Fr. Paul mentioned my uncle during Mass and later admitted to me that my uncle was on Fr. Paul’s mind the entire Mass.
Just as Fr. Paul ended Mass, my uncle took his last breath and just like that, he was gone.
I’d like to think my uncle listening to Fr. Paul’s Mass was a comfort for my uncle. I got to say my goodbyes as well prior to Mass on Facetime. The only thing I thought to tell him was it was okay to leave and that his brothers and parents were all waiting for his arrival.
Granted, his breathing was labored and his eyes wide open when I spoke to him, I was stunned when he passed away at the end of the Mass.
I consider myself pretty lucky to have two of my four grandparents live into their 90s and as well as my mom living into her late 80s.
As the life expectancy grows older and older, it is pretty common for people to live into his or her 80s and 90s. Even knowing as many centurions as I have is pretty amazing.
Knowing that my father passed away a month shy of his 67th birthday, seems a bit unfair.
Toward the end of Uncle John’s life, he would often repeat his accomplishments in life like playing football for his Army team in Japan while in the service, or disarming a gunman at pointblank range single-handedly while defending himself with a clipboard. Yes, we teased him plenty about the clipboard.
He witnessed sports history when he attended 10 Super Bowls from Super Bowl III on.
He, like the others, will be gone, but not forgotten.
Quote of the week
“What we once have enjoyed we can never lose; all that we deeply love becomes a part of us.” – Helen Keller
Thought of the week
“Those we love never truly leave us. There are things that death cannot touch.” – Jack Thorne
Bumper sticker
“Grief is the price we pay for love.” – Queen Elizabeth II
