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The Victoria GAZETTE |
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A Mother’s Journey |
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by Sue Orsen She stood there graceful and lovely, glistening as the southern sun peeked at her from behind the billowy clouds. I had seen photographs but she was even more impressive in real life. The Child, whom she was holding close to her heart, smiled and tenderly caressed His mother. Then the men came and tied a thick rope around her waist and carefully, and slowly, tipped her backwards onto a thick yellow foam pad about the size of a twin bed. A fork lift moved into place with a boom and a hook and swivel, and the men placed the hook over her rope. The forklift raised the quiet mother from the foam pad and, again slowly, carried her across the parking lot to my white pickup truck, the men keeping her balanced in mid air in the supine position about three feet off the ground. A full size mattress, which covered most of the eight-foot bed of my truck, became her resting place for the next few days as we journeyed through springtime from one state into the next. It was about 8 o’clock in the morning when Allan and I left Corydon, Indiana, with the young mother in our back seat, so to speak, traversing Interstate #64 toward St. Louis, Missouri, where our friend Father Bernardine Hahn lives and works. As we pulled into the west parking lot of the St. Anthony Friary on Meramec Street -- it was 2:00 p.m. -- the sun continued to be warm upon us. Father Bernardine appeared at the door with his Holy Water in hand and Book of Blessings under arm. Fr. B. looks like a million bucks and hardly changed in all the years we’ve known him, although he is now 94 years old. Last time Allan and I met up with Fr. B. was at Father Elstan’s funeral Mass in Victoria in May of 2008 when he stayed at our house. We commented on the remarkable spring weather and our road trip, then Fr. B. was down to business with the special blessing for Ave Maria, which is the name I gave to the mother who was resting on the mattress, tied securely for her safety and protection. Beads of holy water clung to her brow and her mantel, and I smiled to know we could now truly call her Our Blessed Mother, as well as our Ave Maria. Maybe you know that Mary has a myriad of other names like Queen of Heaven and Earth and Queen of Peace. Tulips were already blooming down in this southern part of the country, and scads of Red Buds poked their blooming heads from hill and dale. How interesting that this colorful spring tree is sometimes referred to as the Judas tree because it dates back to biblical times. Did Judas hang himself on such a tree? Yikes. Our sculpture of beautiful burnished bronze was commissioned nearly three years ago because of a mother’s prayers (mine) and a mother’s intercession (Mary’s). In every way this is a story of a mother’s journey, though not all of it. *** A mother’s journey began in the summer of 2007 when I contacted David Kocka of Laconia, Indiana, to create this particular life-size sculpture for me. I chose David because he has a Victoria connection -- his parents are Dave and Loretta Kocka of Victoria -- and because I remembered a Thomas Merton sculpture he had done, which I liked. If there is a Victoria connection, I choose it. I’m happy to have chosen David M. Kocka. [Shown in the picture above.]
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May 2010 |
