April 1 1, 2016 Rosary

Connie, what do all these pairs have in common?

Salt and pepper the cartoon strip Hi and Lois

Fred and Ginger

Heckle and Jeckle

Abbott and Costello

Connie and Sparkie

All of these pairs complement each other.

Connie and Sparkie are family…we just have different parents.

Connie and Sparkie adopted me and my family…and we adopted them right back. Our relationship began in the old church years ago.

As Catholics, we always sit in the same spot each Sunday for mass.

My family could always count on a warm welcome and smile from Connie and Sparkie.

Our relationship deepened quickly

I could easily write a book about all the times we spent together. I’d like to share a few of those with you tonight:

Whenever a new restaurant or store opened around town, it was up to us to investigate it. Connie would call this going on an “adventure”.That’s because that’s exactly what it turned into. Sparkie was always our charming chauffeur, Connie called him one of the girls, Connie was our co-pilot, and Lizzie was locked in the back seat. We were equipped with a full tank of gas, and loaded with exploration and imagination. There was no telling what could happen.

We set out one day last Spring to find a Tulip farm that Connie had seen a story carried on channel 8 news. If Channel 8 news carried it, we were going to go check it out. She loved channel 8 and was on a first-name basis with both Pete, the weather guy, and his pal, Dale. As we set out from St Jude, I remember asking Sparkie if he knew where we were going. He confidentially said “yes” and then proceeded to tell me that he had left the map he printed out on the kitchen counter at home. Connie giggled and said, “Don’t worry Miss Lizzie, we’ll find it”! So we set out…we drove…and drove…we were busy taking in the beautiful countryside when after a while it began to look familiar…we saw it over and over…you guessed it, we were lost in a loop. So we stopped at a convenience store where Sparkie was going to ask for directions. Connie and I went over to get a soda while we thought Sparkie was asking for directions. We could see Sparkie talking to the clerk. We got back in the car and soon found out that he had indeed visited with the clerk, but being a man, did he ask for directions? NO. So we continued down the road and surprisingly we came across a Mexican restaurant where we had a punch card to. We decided to have lunch at Ernestino’s. Connie loved Mexican food. She said, “Lizzie, you are going to drop your drawers”! Because the food will be so good. Thank goodness no drawers were ever actually dropped! Upon visiting with our waitress, she let us know that the Tulip farm was just down the road, Her actual words were, “You can’t miss it”. We all laughed because little did she know that, we actually could. After lunch, we did find the tulip farm, exactly where she said it would be. As we all rounded the corner to take in the

beauty of thousands, and thousands of….tulip STEMS! I’m sure weeks before the tulips were in full bloom…but now they were just stems, and brown at that. The three of us laughed till we almost cried…and yes we have the pictures to prove it! That particular adventure brought us so much JOY!

Connie loved to crochet. She made me a couple of lap afghans that are bright yellow and orange (her favorite colors) but she told me that they reminded her of a New Mexico sunset, my home state. She crocheted caps she donated to cancer patients because she learned that oftentimes their heads got cold while undergoing chemo treatments. She did this long before she herself would be diagnosed with cancer. A couple of Christmas’s ago she crocheted a St Louis Cardinal hat for me and my family, my parents, and my 2 sisters and their families. My kids are in medical school in St Louis and my dad raised us all to be St Louis Cardinal fans since birth. When we opened our packages we all took a picture to honor our custom designer who in our eyes was …CONNIE. She always reminded me that you need to wear a hat to protect your skin…she’d say “Lizzie, you don’t want to look like a raisin”! You should hear the story when she wanted me to do my yard work wearing a sombrero! One gust of wind…and I’m history!

I treasure the blankets she made for me because I can wrap them around me and remember the many group hugs we shared.

Thanksgiving is when we remember all God has blessed us with and we are so grateful. It also marks the annual appearance of Miss Connie’s “corn casserole”! Every year it’s a bit different because the recipe of the prior year was always “mysteriously” misplaced. We all enjoyed it, but especially my son Matthew and my brother-in-law, Matt. They would praise her baked casserole till her toes didn’t touch the ground. Connie called it the “coyote casserole” because she said that the minute she left we put the leftovers out for the coyotes! This past year casserole arrived covered in foil decorated with many different pictures of coyotes. My husband Dave told her that he would put the casserole out on our diving board and play coyote calls over our backyard speakers! Connie always thought the “Senor Dave” was so funny! Like one year for his birthday she made him a key lime pie…only to find the key limes on the counter after the pie was made. Senor

Dave just said, “OK, let’s have some P-I-E”. One year for my birthday she made me a carrot cake. It’s my favorite and it took her all day to make. It turned out really good and I really appreciated all her effort. She told me later that “baking is hard work…and then you have to wash the dishes”! All the times we spent cooking reminds me of the episodes of Lucy and Ethel on I Love Lucy…l Love You, Connie.

She had the saying “The Best is Yet to Come” stenciled on the entryway in their home. She always believed that…and now she is living it.

Our Faith teaches us that the Best is indeed yet to come…and my pal is already there.