Restless Soul: Sadness/Happiness

Reporting from Wallis' apartment w/ ice coffee in hand. It's 10:41 p.m. Only 2 hours and 19 minutes to go.

I think this is my last time with her. She is moving into an assisted living. (She doesn't know it yet and I'm not about to break the news.) I will miss her (we laugh a lot) and will also miss the 50 bucks a night I make hanging out here.

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It's been a busy weekend.

Saturday Morning

Hannah and I went to Father Kamp's funeral. Northbrook had huge banners with his picture hung all over town. It was one of the most beautiful funerals I have ever been to. The church was full --hundreds upon hundreds came out to pay their respects. There were monks singing in the hallways.. You couldn't see them, but you could hear the music just floating throughout the cathedral. It was beautiful. Father Kamp wrote his own funeral. The bulletin had a letter printed in it from him, had a page of what he had learned in his 91 years of life, and a poem had written for the occasion. Pretty magnificent stuff.

After the funeral we walked about 15 minutes into this gorgeous cemetery behind the monastery. There was another short service at the grave site and then we all walked back to have brunch in the basement of the church.

I am laminating a picture of him, and am going to keep it in my bible as a reminder of how to treat people. He never ever stopped serving and never ever stopped smiling. He would look at me with this big grin on his face and say, “Well hello kid!” and give me a big, monster hug every time I was with him. No one will ever be able to take his place. I over heard several people say, “If you want to know what Jesus was like when He walked this earth, just look at Father Kamp.” It was true. I'll sure miss him.

Saturday Night

John took me out. Yes- you read that right.

He told me he was going to take me to this nice restaurant. I said, “Great! We haven't been out for dinner together in so long!” He said, “I'm taking you out for 'snacks'. I only have a few bucks left on my gift card.” The kids started yelling at him-- “Dad, you should take your wife out for dinner! She's worth more than snacks!” (Didn't help).

Anyway, after eating frozen chicken nuggets and french fries with the kids, we went out and shared dessert and some wine. We had a great time. Best time with John in a while. We need more of that.

Sunday

Joey's first Cubs game.

The reasons why it was so great:

#1. It was just Joey and I.

#2. He had never ridden on the “EL”.

#3. He had never been to Wrigley Field and the Cubs are his favorite team.

#4. The Cubs actually won.

We spent $20 on 2 cokes and 2 hotdogs. I was shocked- but I had to buy him a hotdog from the vendor yelling, “Get your hotdog!” It was just all part of the fun.

Joey spent all of his money on this hat: