March 26, 2025 While I’ve always liked her, I’ve always felt like we had almost nothing in common. I honestly couldn’t tell you how I first met her, but I feel like I’ve known Mary Beth most of the time I’ve worked here. We both love writing and the written word, and we both love Jesus. For the most part, I thought that was where our similarities ended. I’m loud, excitable and impulsive, while Mary Beth is quiet, calm and deliberate. I spent my childhood on a farm in northern Franklin County, and she spent hers in Plattsburgh. She grew up attending daily Mass. I grew up goofing off with my sisters while we were supposed to be at Mass and then heading home when we saw the stream of cars leaving St. Joseph’s Church in Bombay. We are very different! On Thursday evening, I arrived home rather late to find what appeared to be a card on my desk. The card had Mary Beth’s return address label. My birthday was a couple of months ago. I haven’t done anything worthy of a thank you card or a congratulatory card. I’m not sick. I had no idea why I was getting a card from Mary Beth. I opened the card to see a floral card cover. The cover had a yellow sticky note attached to it. The note indicated Mary Beth had recently found the card, but she had written the note and intended to send it as I was recovering from my last surgery. My last surgery was seven months ago. It made me laugh out loud. She took the time to write out a beautiful note, and she forgot to send it. That is 100 percent something I would do. It was another similarity! That card and the attached note made me realize how Mary Beth and I are actually the same in big ways. I’d like to think we’re both good but flawed and broken people trying to love God and be loved by Him, and to follow Him where He leads us, hopefully to eternal life. And we get to help each other in the process (though I think she helps me far more than I help her). I think a lot of us have that in common. |
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