When I read the news, I nearly gasped, and my stomach did some sort of weird flip with a fleeting feeling of a flock of butterflies fluttering in my stomach.

My hometown church was finally and forever closing, and the property was sold to the village’s police department for their new headquarters.

This put the final death knell on my home parish.  The parochial school closed about a decade ago.  In fact, about twenty years ago, the name of the school changed, and a new order of nuns took over, and it was that reincarnation that closed a decade ago.  But no matter.  The school is gone, as well as the church.

This is something that one really never expects to see in one’s lifetime.  Yes, things do change, places come and go, but that is supposed to happen many decades down the road when we are long gone.

And then I thought about death.  Nearly everything on Earth dies.  Civilizations come and go.  Countries that once existed are no longer.  The same with languages, cults, fads, and buildings.  And sure, some buildings still remain – take the Egyptian pyramids, for example – but they are not used for their original purpose, are they?

Last year ended with the tiniest bit of hope for the mending and renewing of certain relationships, but as the lid closed on 2022 and a bright new 2023 began, that hope is fading – and quickly.  It is time to realize that some connections die off.  In truth, most never really began.

Time marches on, they say.  I just don’t like that some pieces of my parade are gone.

As ever,

Lady Susan Marie Molloy

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