Sunday, January 26th, 2025. 3:14 AM.
This Is Dedicated to The ONE I Love
My Most Lovely Lady Lord Jesus
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’
“So God created man in his own image,
In the image of God he created him;
Male and female he created them.
“And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” -Genesis 1: 26-28. ESV Study Bible.
A Twight-Zone-Like Imagining
St. Charles School Born Again !
Rebuilt – Just As It Was
Someone Found the Architectural Design Plans at the Library
He Wanted to See His Old School Just As It Was
And walk its hallways once again
And enter its classrooms and sit at his school desk once again
It’s where I went to school – for 8 years
My First 8 Years of Learning
The Address of the Church Building Just Across the School Yard
8 Daniels Street
I think 8 is my number – for many reasons . . .
So very many things in my life have the number 8
My mother told me she didn’t think I would do well in school
But, I did do well in school.
School was so interesting and so orderly.
It was just right for me.
I loved learning.
And there were girls in all our classes.
And girls are so pretty.
I love their beautifulness.
And all our teachers were girls – well, grown-up girls.
Sisters of Mercy
The Nuns in Black and White
Our First-grade teacher was Sister Mary Carlene.
She was young – about my mother’s age.
And my mom was young, too – 21-and-9 months when I was born.
I was born exactly 9 months after Valentine’s Day.
The 14th of February to the 14th of November.
It got me wondering if I was a Valentine’s baby.
So, I mentioned this to mom.
She said, “No.”
But, you’d never know it . . . the way my mom brought me up.
She was strict with me.
Impatient, too.
“Hurry up!” she’d say with a sigh.
No wonder I grew up with anxiety.
I imagine my childhood was like being in boot-camp of the military.
From the first day home from the hospital, I had a drill sergeant raising me.
And my dad . . .
I still remember him lifting me up high in front of the door where the crucifix was hanging. He kind of threw me up above his own head; so that, as a toddler, I’d fall back down with my little butt in the palm of dad’s hand. And he would tell me:
“Kiss the Jesus.”
So, I’d kissed the crucifix of Jesus, the Son of God Most High above the door.
“I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” -Jesus. [John 10:9 ESV].
10:9 – those are Eileen’s birthday numbers again.
And Eileen’s Dad’s first name is John.
I hope Eileen gets born again.
So she may enjoy eternal life in the new heavens and the new earth —
And be gloriously regenerated at the second coming of Christ –
When the dead are raised up incorruptible.
You Raise Me Up (with lyrics) – Selah
“Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” -Jesus. [John 12: 31, 32. ESV Study Bible].
“Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” -John 6: 35-40. ESV Study Bible.
Maybe that crucifix was the first thing I ever kissed in all my life . . .
And when my Memere Wilbur, my mom’s mother, babysat me at night sometimes, she took me into the bedroom at bedtime; and we knelt down beside the bed. And we prayed the first prayer I ever learned.
“Now I lay me down to sleep.
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.”
I turned to Memere while we were both still on our knees and asked her:
“Who is the Lord?”
We got up and Memere took me by the hand.
We walked into the dining room where the apartment door was.
And she pointed to the crucifix above the door without saying a word.
My Memere was a peaceful and gentle and quiet lady.
She wasn’t like my mother.
And Memere was our landlady, too.
She owned the property and the 3-story house where we all lived.
She never lorded it over us – even though she was our landlord.
She was always meek and gentle in heart. She washed down the whole yard with her garden hose after watering her garden. And she took out the barrels to the sidewalk herself – three big oil drums — and brought them back into the backyard after they were emptied.
And she grew many vegetables in her garden; and gave them to her children who lived in her triple-decker house: our Aunt Dorothy, her oldest; our Uncle Milton and his wife, Aunt Pauline and their three children: Milton, Phyllis and Paula Wilbur; and my mom Beulah and our Dad Raymond and all seven of us children: Lesley, Mark, Dale, Karen, Lisa, Jason and Todd. In many ways it was sweet growing up on Sweet Avenue.
And there were fruit trees and grape vines and a picnic table under the apple tree; and wooden birds nests that my Dad and Uncle Milton built in the pear tree and in the big maple tree in the garden for the sparrows.
Saturday, January 25th, 2025.
I moved into this apartment on January 23rd, 2008.
I was 56 years old.
I’m 73 years old now.
My mom and brothers, Jason and Todd and sister Karen and her husband David, and sister Lisa — all helped me move in here. My mom is gone now. She departed in August of 2018. Whenever I pull the string on the blind that shades my porch door I remember my mother. She helped me put up the valence curtain over that door’s window that overlooks Clinton Street in 2008. I can see Bellingham and Blackstone, Massachusetts in the far distance from that window; and the bridge over East School Street – where the Mill River flows under the bridge that spans East School Street. And Social Park is just to the left of that bridge. And my grandmother, Lucia Roy met her future husband, my grandfather, Donat Richer in a factory building that used to be called American Paper Tube. They worked there. And many years later there was a huge Santa Claus figure atop that building. It was called Tinsel Town. I suppose they made Christmas decorations there. And down below – I’m on the 8th floor here at John F. Kennedy Manor – and across Clinton Street there were streets that are no longer there: Page Street and Gobeille Avenue. My dad was born in a house on Gobeille Avenue in late August of 1925. If those streets were still there, I’d be able to see them from my porch; but they were removed during something called Urban Renewal in the 1970s, I guess it was. I wish I could walk on those streets of Woonsocket’s Social District and see the houses. And the “Big” part of Gaulin Avenue is no longer there – only Little Gaulin is left – and a brief part of Big Gaulin Avenue; and neither are Leonard Street and Samson Street and some other streets. There was a side street right here where Kennedy Manor is now. Busses parked there — near the Blackstone River – just beyond a high river wall behind the back parking lot of Kennedy Manor. And from the backyard, I can see Fournier & Fournier Funeral Home – where I last saw my dad in late December of 1974. Eileen and her Mom came to the wake. It could have been early January of 1975 that I saw Eileen there. Thank you for coming to the wake, Eileen. My dad departed on December 28th. It was a Saturday. Today is Saturday 2025 – 50 years have passed since then. I was 23 years old.
Come Saturday Morning – The Sandpipers (lyrics)
Come Saturday Morning – The Sandpipers (lyrics) – YouTube
In August of 1974, Eileen and I went on a bus trip to Montreal, Canada with the Rhode Island Hikers Club. Eileen became a student at St. Charles School beginning in September of 1961. We were in 4th grade. I was 9 and Eileen was 8 years old in September.
“Come Saturday Morning” by the Sandpipers
“Come Saturday Morning” by the Sandpipers
SEE YOU IN SEPTEMBER – (The Happenings / Lyrics)
SEE YOU IN SEPTEMBER – (The Happenings / Lyrics) – YouTube
Phil Collins – Can’t Stop Loving You (Official Music Video)
Phil Collins – Can’t Stop Loving You (Official Music Video) – YouTube
I’m not in love with Eileen now.
I just remember her often.
I’m in a lot of pain right now.
Physical pain.
I got about 90 minutes of sleep and then awakened at 12:39 AM. I had some milk and cereal and the pain flared up again. I took one Tylenol; and after about an hour it began to alleviate the abdominal pain; but then it came back again. I’m drinking cold water now as I write. It often helps – drinking cold water.
Dedicated to the one I love – The Mama’s and the Papa’s (lyrics)
Dedicated to the one I love – The Mama’s and the Papa’s (lyrics) – YouTube
Mark's Imaginings 