Saturday Evening, November 29, 2025. 8:25 PM.
Today is the 333rd day of this year.
I can’t make up my mind whether to call this story,
“All of a Sudden”
Or
“Memories of Sweet Avenue”
The Lord will help me
Just as He helped the little drummer boy
I’m having a notion about the Biblical Rapture that is going to happen all of a sudden “in the twinkling of an eye.”
“I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?” -1 Corinthians 15: 50-55 ESV Study Bible.
The Rapture
Gospel Tract – The Rapture – Moments With The Book
The Rapture – Moments With The Book
1 Corinthians 15 ESV
1 Corinthians 15 ESV – The Resurrection of Christ – Now I – Bible Gateway
I like to think
“It was sweet growing up on Sweet Avenue”
In
Woonsocket, Rhode Island
From
1951 to 1970
Sweet Avenue was not far from Woonsocket Hospital where I was born.
And
A & P Supermarket
Was Directly Across the Street.
The Hospital has a different name now.
And A & P – which stood for Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company –
Is
No Longer There
Before A & P was there – and before I was born – St. Ann’s Baseball Field was there –
At the corner of Cass Avenue and Dulude Avenue.
I was born directly across the street at that hospital – at
8:23 AM on Wednesday November 14th, 1951.
My mother told me it was an overcast day.
I guess she meant the sky was cloudy.
There Is A Song
That Says
“But the skies are not cloudy all day”
It’s in the song:
“Home On the Range”
That song is a heart-toucher to me.
My feeling about growing up on Sweet Avenue is like the feeling of that song .
If you listen to it, you might get the feeling.
It’s a very sad feeling.
And as I typed the words heart-toucher, the word teacher came to mind.
Eileen would probably say I’m living in the Past.
Eileen became a third-grade teacher.
A few days ago, I walked by the white house where she lived during the 1960s –
When we were going to St. Charles School –
At the corner of Earle and Daniel Streets near the North End of Woonsocket.
That house where Eileen lived has been white since the first time I ever saw it when I was about 13 years old.
Yesterday, I saw a clip of the movie Casablanca. Later, I found out that the name Casablanca means white house.
Getting back on track now – about memories of Sweet Avenue:
I remember seeing my mother getting out of a car with her/our newest baby. The baby may have been my brother Dale. He was born in July of 1954. I was 2 years and 8 months old. My mom had seven children. Dale was the third.
It would be interesting to read a history of the very beginnings of Sweet Avenue. And see pictures of it when it may have been only a path in the wilderness with no houses yet. Wonder what year the first house was built there – and which house it was. My grandmother – my mother’s mom – owned the property where we lived in a 3-story tenement with the address numbers of 74 and 76 Sweet Avenue. I’m 74 years old now. The first and second floor apartments had the number 74. Our family lived on the 3rd floor – which had the number 76. Our Uncle Milton and Aunt Pauline lived in the second-floor apartment with their three children – Milton, Phyllis and Paula. Our Aunt Dorothy lived in the first-floor apartment near the driveway; and our grandmother also lived in a separate apartment on the first floor that had a backyard entrance.
I sometimes return to Sweet Avenue for a walk down memory lane — so many memories. And so many feelings about growing up there. I remember being outside, alone, when I was about 4 years old. It was afternoon — and a cloud suddenly passed in front of the sun – making it cloudy all-of-a-sudden. I felt such an emotion of gloom when I was overshadowed by the cloud. And then – after the cloud passed away and the sun was shining on me again – I felt so much better – all-of-sudden. I was so young I didn’t realize at first why the day suddenly became dark.
I wonder how I would have felt if Eileen had been there with me.
Maybe she would have told me,
“Mark, someday you’re going to be living in your memories of Sweet Avenue.”
A mysterious co-incidence . . .
Mr. and Mrs. Sutherland owned the 6-family tenement house next to our grandmother’s property on Sweet Avenue. And after many years that property was sold to Mr. Egan. My younger brother, Dale, was in school with a boy named Egan of that same family. And a few years ago, I learned that the property where Eileen had lived in the white house – far away from Sweet Avenue — had been purchased by that same Egan family. They may not own it anymore.
There may be connections between all of us – that we are not aware of –
Spiritual connections.
Jesus said to those who believe in him:
“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” -John 15: 5. ESV Study Bible.
John 15-17 ESV
John 15-17 ESV – I Am the True Vine – “I am the true – Bible Gateway
Just When I Needed You Most – Randy VanWarmer (with lyrics)
Just When I Needed You Most – Randy VanWarmer (with lyrics)
That song makes me feel like crying.
And that’s okay . . .
I believe it’s only because my heart is breaking open – like a sprouting seed.
Another memory of Sweet Avenue is about Eileen the First.
She was in first grade with me. And she lived near Woonsocket Hospital.
And on the last day of first grade, after getting home from school, I was standing on the sidewalk – approximately between Mr. Sutherland’s property and my grandmother’s property. And Stanley Avenue that comes down to Sweet Avenue was in view – right in front of me. And Eileen the First came walking down Stanley Avenue with two other girls her age. And they crossed the street to where I was standing alone. And walked by. And we were all silent. And it is a sweet memory to me – even now – 67 years later. That memory is also a heart-toucher that breaks my heart open like a sprouting seed.
Maybe this life is only a preliminary to something much greater – that is coming –
For those who believe the gospel of
The Kingdom of God.
Revelation 21-22 ESV
Revelation 21-22 ESV – The New Heaven and the New Earth – Then – Bible Gateway
The name Eileen means Light
“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’” -John 8: 12 ESV Study Bible.
John 8-10 ESV
John 8-10 ESV – but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. – Bible Gateway
“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” -1 John 1: 5. ESV Study Bible.
1 John 1-5 ESV
1 John 1-5 ESV – The Word of Life – That which was from – Bible Gateway
1 Corinthians 15 ESV
1 Corinthians 15 ESV – The Resurrection of Christ – Now I – Bible Gateway
Mark's Imaginings 