Vaya con Dios

Vaya con Dios by Finijo

We recently got a new neighbor, a white haired old man with a old white pick-up truck. I saw something hanging from his truck's visor, and when I looked closer I saw saintly visages. My friend Ang used to hang a St. Christopher medal on her rearview mirror, and Dad used to keep a Star of David on his steering column, but I never saw a visor-shrine before. I think his shrine has a hopeful, kitschy kind of beauty, so I snapped this shot of it today when I went home for lunch. That's also when I ran into Sister Mark Edward and got the chance to chat with her for the first time in weeks. She came to clean out Miss Eleanor's apartment. Miss Eleanor is her mother and our next door neighbor and Sister Mark Edward lives in the convent behind our place. About a year and a half ago, Miss Eleanor fell and couldn't get up. She's stubbornly refused to give up her apartment, even though she's been recovering in a convalescent center since her fall. Oddly enough, she also refused to give up her home in Beaumont five years ago because Sister Mark Edward felt she was not able to take care of herself well enough to live that far away. So this 90-something year old woman resides in a nursing home, while paying rent on an apartment and paying taxes on her house. She's a tad stubborn, as I mentioned before.

When Sister Mark Edward asked me what has been happening since we last spoke, I told her about recent my trips out of town and the interview scheduled for next week. She asked if the job was something that I really wanted, and I told her how I have been trying to get the job I am interviewing for since 2002. I told her how the job has become available once a year for the last three years, and how the first year there was a hiring freeze right after I sent in my application. I explained that I applied again in 2004 and how they hired through an internal transfer that year, so nobody was given an interview. This time around, 4 positions were posted, increasing my odds and allowing me the opportunity to at last, interview for the position. She told me she'd put my interview down in the prayer book at the church and that all the nuns at the convent would pray for me to get the job. I'm not Catholic, but I will take any good intention I can get, from anyone willing to send happy thoughts my way, and be glad for it - especially after three years of getting nowhere on my own.