2023--Sister Stephanie's 60th Jubilee
June 22, 2023---Prologue
We fly to Los Angeles tomorrow. I’m not a fan of California. I like the weather, but I hate the politics, the crime, the crowds, and the woke mindset that is shoved down my throat with everything written or spoken about the state. Then why and I going? I love my Aunt, and she has a very special celebration coming up.
In July of 1963, Mary Ann Schenfeld, one of my Mom’s younger sisters, at age 18, took her vows to be a Carmelite Sister. She had been a nun, devoting her life to God, the teaching of his son, and general goodness for 60 years. I will have been breathing for 60 years upon that occasion.
I have promised her several times that come hell or high water, I would be there to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee with her. This has not come without complications. It was only a couple of months ago that we got the dates firmed up for when this would happen. I generally need to turn my vacation time in by March to get the days I want. But, since I’m a department head, and I have people who support me, I just let them know the general time I was expecting to go, and they worked around that.
Next difficulty was, me. I got fat. Ok, fatter. All of my old clothes are tight, and some too tight. My suit fell into that latter category, but I did not think about the detail of trying it on until Tuesday night. Yes, two days ago. When it did not fit, that left the options open to a new suit from JC Penney’s, and old suit from ARC, or roll the dice and order something from Amazon.
When the Amazon package came today, I got a black pair of pants, and a blue suit coat that did not fit. The pants need to be hemmed. Margo is working on that, and the jacket will be sent back. I will have to settle for a blue dress shirt, with my company logo on the cuff, a nice tie, and my brand new, cuffed pants. What would on of these trips be without some sort of drama or adventure.
I am looking forward to seeing my aunt. Her brother, Donnie (Unk) and Aunt Prim, will also be there to celebrate. It should be a really nice time and I can’t wait to catch up with my family.
In July of 1963, Mary Ann Schenfeld, one of my Mom’s younger sisters, at age 18, took her vows to be a Carmelite Sister. She had been a nun, devoting her life to God, the teaching of his son, and general goodness for 60 years. I will have been breathing for 60 years upon that occasion.
I have promised her several times that come hell or high water, I would be there to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee with her. This has not come without complications. It was only a couple of months ago that we got the dates firmed up for when this would happen. I generally need to turn my vacation time in by March to get the days I want. But, since I’m a department head, and I have people who support me, I just let them know the general time I was expecting to go, and they worked around that.
Next difficulty was, me. I got fat. Ok, fatter. All of my old clothes are tight, and some too tight. My suit fell into that latter category, but I did not think about the detail of trying it on until Tuesday night. Yes, two days ago. When it did not fit, that left the options open to a new suit from JC Penney’s, and old suit from ARC, or roll the dice and order something from Amazon.
When the Amazon package came today, I got a black pair of pants, and a blue suit coat that did not fit. The pants need to be hemmed. Margo is working on that, and the jacket will be sent back. I will have to settle for a blue dress shirt, with my company logo on the cuff, a nice tie, and my brand new, cuffed pants. What would on of these trips be without some sort of drama or adventure.
I am looking forward to seeing my aunt. Her brother, Donnie (Unk) and Aunt Prim, will also be there to celebrate. It should be a really nice time and I can’t wait to catch up with my family.
Day One---Friday, June 23, 2023
I got up at 6 AM today with the intent of being on the road around 7 AM. We have a 9:40 flight and I wanted to give plenty of time because by the time this flight gets boarded the airport will be very busy. We parked in the covered section of USAirport Parking, because we were taking Margo’s Trailblazer and we have been getting a lot of weather as of late, including hail. Everything went mostly to plan and we were at our gate at about 8:30 and ready to board at 9:10.
I’m not a fan of Southwest’s boarding procedure. You board by assignment, and those are given out based on how early you check in. Check in begins at exactly 24 hours before you flight is scheduled to take off. That means on Thursday at 9:40 AM we could check in. Usually Margo does that for both of us, but this time we had different confirmation numbers, so we needed to check in separately. She ended up in C-5 and I was in C-23. We would likely not be sitting together. But, as Margo’s ankle is still bothering her, she asked for pre-board when we checked in and we go to board after the first part of As.
Why would be has such a crappy boarding position, if we checked in right away. Because for a fee, Southwest will check you both right as check in starts, and in front of everyone who just tries to do it normally. It’s a big game, and like I said, I really hate it. But, if they went with assigned seating, you can count on window and aisle seats going for more money.
I was dead tired, and actually slept for most of the flight. Margo tired, but this one kid would go from zero to 120 decibels in one breath of air, and startle the whole cabin. Somehow, while acknowledging that it was happening, it never set off an adrenaline surge for me, and I would just shrug it off. Margo was not so lucky, and slept sporadically.
We landed, retrieved our bags, and was pretty happy to be in much smaller, Ontario airport, than LAX. It was easy to navigate, and we for our bag nearly as soon as we arrived at baggage claim. We also lucked out with the rental car shuttle, and was able to walk right on. When we arrived at our Alamo lot, that check in went smooth, although we did have a couple of people ahead of us.
I had rented a full-size vehicle for this trip, as I did not want to be cramped, and I wanted to keep options open for transporting people. I was given the choice, for the same price, of a white Chevy Malibu, or a red Dodge Charger. I figured the Charger would be getting me a ticket or would be stolen, so I stayed with the non-descript Chevy.
Traffic was heavy, but not horrible, grading on the Los Angeles curve. When we were in the Miami/Ft Lauderdale area in Jan of 2022, it was much worse there. We made a bee line for our hotel, the Best Western Pasadena Royale Inn, on Colorado Blvd. This stretch of road is important for two reasons; one historical, the other musical. Any 60s music fan should have immediately put together Pasadena and Colorado Blvd, from the Jan and Dean song “Little Old Lady from Pasadena”. Remembering her as the terror of Colorado Blvd. The historical reason; this stretch of Colorado Blvd is part of old Route 66. I’m going to have to check, but Margo and I maybe have driven parts of Route 66 in all eight states it passes though.
Our hotel was an older one, maybe not quite at home in the heyday of Route 66, it was built in 1985, but it still had charm, and was well maintained. I had been trying to stay in contact with Aunt Prim, to see when they would be arriving, but I had not heard back from them, so we decided to get some lunch. It was around 2 PM by then, and even though we had been invited to lunch at The Casa (the resident home for retired nuns), we figured there was no way they were waiting on us.
Basically across the street was a Mongolian BBQ place, the Golden Palace. We like that cuisine, so we walked over. It was in another older building, and obviously not a chain. It was smaller in size than we were used to, with many fewer sections, but it was good enough. We had no trouble getting filled up, and soon we were walking back across the street.
Almost as soon as we got back to our room and made up our minds to head to Duarte, Uncle Donnie and Aunt Prim drove into the hotel parking lot. Good timing. It was about 4 PM. They had driven from their home in Pahrump, making a single stop in Baker for a burger. It did not take them long to also be ready to go.
Aunt Prim had left her local directions at home. I had my GPS, but we could not find the right outlet to plug it in. We did later find it, but only after we had started using my phone and Google Maps to good effect. The big obstacle getting to any place in the Los Angles area is traffic. While it was not light by any stretch of the imagination, heading east was usually better than heading west, towards LA. In light traffic it would take about 15 minutes. It took the four of us between 20 and 25, so tolerable.
I’m not a fan of Southwest’s boarding procedure. You board by assignment, and those are given out based on how early you check in. Check in begins at exactly 24 hours before you flight is scheduled to take off. That means on Thursday at 9:40 AM we could check in. Usually Margo does that for both of us, but this time we had different confirmation numbers, so we needed to check in separately. She ended up in C-5 and I was in C-23. We would likely not be sitting together. But, as Margo’s ankle is still bothering her, she asked for pre-board when we checked in and we go to board after the first part of As.
Why would be has such a crappy boarding position, if we checked in right away. Because for a fee, Southwest will check you both right as check in starts, and in front of everyone who just tries to do it normally. It’s a big game, and like I said, I really hate it. But, if they went with assigned seating, you can count on window and aisle seats going for more money.
I was dead tired, and actually slept for most of the flight. Margo tired, but this one kid would go from zero to 120 decibels in one breath of air, and startle the whole cabin. Somehow, while acknowledging that it was happening, it never set off an adrenaline surge for me, and I would just shrug it off. Margo was not so lucky, and slept sporadically.
We landed, retrieved our bags, and was pretty happy to be in much smaller, Ontario airport, than LAX. It was easy to navigate, and we for our bag nearly as soon as we arrived at baggage claim. We also lucked out with the rental car shuttle, and was able to walk right on. When we arrived at our Alamo lot, that check in went smooth, although we did have a couple of people ahead of us.
I had rented a full-size vehicle for this trip, as I did not want to be cramped, and I wanted to keep options open for transporting people. I was given the choice, for the same price, of a white Chevy Malibu, or a red Dodge Charger. I figured the Charger would be getting me a ticket or would be stolen, so I stayed with the non-descript Chevy.
Traffic was heavy, but not horrible, grading on the Los Angeles curve. When we were in the Miami/Ft Lauderdale area in Jan of 2022, it was much worse there. We made a bee line for our hotel, the Best Western Pasadena Royale Inn, on Colorado Blvd. This stretch of road is important for two reasons; one historical, the other musical. Any 60s music fan should have immediately put together Pasadena and Colorado Blvd, from the Jan and Dean song “Little Old Lady from Pasadena”. Remembering her as the terror of Colorado Blvd. The historical reason; this stretch of Colorado Blvd is part of old Route 66. I’m going to have to check, but Margo and I maybe have driven parts of Route 66 in all eight states it passes though.
Our hotel was an older one, maybe not quite at home in the heyday of Route 66, it was built in 1985, but it still had charm, and was well maintained. I had been trying to stay in contact with Aunt Prim, to see when they would be arriving, but I had not heard back from them, so we decided to get some lunch. It was around 2 PM by then, and even though we had been invited to lunch at The Casa (the resident home for retired nuns), we figured there was no way they were waiting on us.
Basically across the street was a Mongolian BBQ place, the Golden Palace. We like that cuisine, so we walked over. It was in another older building, and obviously not a chain. It was smaller in size than we were used to, with many fewer sections, but it was good enough. We had no trouble getting filled up, and soon we were walking back across the street.
Almost as soon as we got back to our room and made up our minds to head to Duarte, Uncle Donnie and Aunt Prim drove into the hotel parking lot. Good timing. It was about 4 PM. They had driven from their home in Pahrump, making a single stop in Baker for a burger. It did not take them long to also be ready to go.
Aunt Prim had left her local directions at home. I had my GPS, but we could not find the right outlet to plug it in. We did later find it, but only after we had started using my phone and Google Maps to good effect. The big obstacle getting to any place in the Los Angles area is traffic. While it was not light by any stretch of the imagination, heading east was usually better than heading west, towards LA. In light traffic it would take about 15 minutes. It took the four of us between 20 and 25, so tolerable.
|
We pulled in, Uncle Donnie dropped us all off at the door, and guess who was waiting there to let us in; the guest of honor herself; Sister Stephanie. We were let into the entrance hall of The Casa. The Casa is what the residents house for the retired sisters is called. My aunt, after 60 years of service, is now retired and enjoying a less taxing part of her life. There was a sitting room off to the left and that is where the five of us went.
We spent the next 1 ½ hours visiting and catching up. The time went quick, as soon a parade of nuns was moving down the hall, signally dinner time. Sister Stephanie asked if we would like to stay, but instead we made plans to pick her up at 7:30 AM and go to breakfast, tomorrow, Saturday morning. We said our good-byes and we were headed west to Pasadena. We were all getting hungry and with no one having a better idea, I suggested Pepe’s, a Mexican place that had been in business for the last 50 years. I figured it must be good, so that is where I set Google Maps to take us. We pulled in to the lot, and I was immediately wary. I was expecting a sit-down restaurant. This had a drive thru. When we walked in the door, I could see it was counter service, the same as any Burger King across the nation. Still, we were here and hungry. Everyone, except Aunt Prim ended up with something that included a chili relleno. |
Sister Stephanie and Margo shortly after arriving
|
I have never seen a chili relleno wrapped in a scrambled egg, but that is what we were served. No one really like it. Margo did not eat most of hers. Uncle Donnie and I, did, more out of hunger and politeness, but not because it was yummy. Truth be told, if not for that strange relleno, the food was decent. Aunt Prim had no complaints about her Taco Salad, and the remainder of our combos were OK. But, we would not be making a repeat visit to Pepe’s.
We drove back to the hotel, and made arrangements to meet at 7 AM, so we could drive to Duarte, and pick up Sister Stephanie at 7:30 PM. Traffic willing. I did my nightly routine with cash, expenses, and notes for the day. We were both in bed by 9 PM. It had felt like a much longer day.
We drove back to the hotel, and made arrangements to meet at 7 AM, so we could drive to Duarte, and pick up Sister Stephanie at 7:30 PM. Traffic willing. I did my nightly routine with cash, expenses, and notes for the day. We were both in bed by 9 PM. It had felt like a much longer day.
Day Two
Margo and I were up at 6 AM. Aunt Prim is like me, and not an early riser. Uncle Donnie sleeps about 5 hours a night and is up early. I am not sure how they worked their morning out, but Margo and I got up about the same time, with her getting started on her morning routine first. As planned, we were on the road by 7 AM.
I navigated and did a good job of relaying exit numbers and distance, to Uncle Donnie, who handled the California traffic like he did it all the time. I notice he stayed in the right lane most of time, which is usually the lane for cowards. But, much more often than not, this was the fastest moving lane, so it was certainly the correct lane to be in. I would have hoped, had I been driving I would have noticed this and stayed right. Of course, maybe because this is California, too many people are prejudiced against anything right, leaving it for us. We got there at 7:25 AM, right on time.
We were let in by a member of the staff, who was working on some cleaning chore. I announced that we were there to kidnap Sister Stephanie and take her to breakfast. I expected a grin and a joke back, but she looked like she was unsure if she should slam the door or let us in. I quickly let her know that we had permission, and we would bring her back. But even as she let us in, she looked unsure. I must look more dangerous than I thought.
I had located a Denny’s, not trusting anything except a chain restaurant after last night’s night gastro-surprise. Everyone thought that was a good idea, and we were pulling into the parking lot, about 10 minutes later.
Denny’s gave us their menu, plus a special one touting their crepe breakfasts. The strawberry ones looked appealing to everyone. I think four out of five of us got that, with our choice of eggs being the only difference. They turned out to be very good. No complaints about this meal.
After we had finished and were making our small talk before leaving a gentlemen came over to our table to talk to Sister Stephanie and ask her some questions. We let him know that she was celebrating 60 years as a nun and he let us know he had a close relative who was also a habited nun. They had a nice conversation ending with him congratulating her on her achievement. Then it was back to the car and back to The Casa.
I had expressed an interest in seeing the grounds, and all of the flowers that were planted there. Sister Stephanie was happy to get permission and lead us on a tour. We started with the courtyard, which is surrounded on all four sides making it very tranquil. There was a sister working diligently on one section of the garden, picking dead pieces of the plants to spur growth. There was another sister who joined us shortly who took several pictures of us together.
We moved outside the compound to several areas, all of them surprisingly quiet. There was not a ton of traffic in this area. We really were impressed by the several jacaranda trees which were on the grounds. They had very pretty purple flowers, which dominated the tree. There were green leaves, but all of the purple blotted them out.
There was a new area, still being finished. It had most of the plants in it, but the watering system was still being installed. There were no workers when we were there. It was going to be a very nice place to sit and read, pray, or just relax when it was finished.
After our tour we went back inside to visit and reminisce some more. The time past quickly and soon it was lunch time. We had made no plans, and Sister Stephanie asked if we would like to join her and the sisters for lunch. That sounded like an interesting experience, so we all jumped at the change.
The sisters have a cafeteria large enough for about 25 or 30 people, and is set up to be served buffet-style. There were tables and benches. The tables had a drawer under each setting which could hold plenty of things, but in this case, a hymnal. This would come in handy, as because this was the feast day for St. James, we would be singing the blessing, instead of just listening to someone say grace, and we all say Amen.
This was a little intimidating because even with a hymnal (song book), the words were very unfamiliar. It was not like we would be singing Happy Birthday. And, because even though the hymnal told us it was sung to the tune of “blank”, if I had ever heard of “blank” in my life, I could no more recall it than the first time I tasted chocolate. And, it would be done acapella, no music. If all of this was not enough, Sister Mary Michael, the sister in charge, mentioned she wanted us to make sure she could hear us. Gulp.
I could hear Uncle Donnie, who was right beside me. I could hear the sisters, who sang in loud clear voices, but that was it. I have no doubt the fear of lightning bolts prevented mouthing the words by my aunt and bride, but they likely were not singing in full voice. I confess to not either. My singing voice is not one of God’s gifts to the world.
The food was good, prepared by cooks, rather than the sisters. As they had been serving God for many years, it was nice to see them served by someone else. There was a variety of things, with a couple kinds of protein, chicken and beef, vegetables, fruit and nuts, and cookies for dessert.
After lunch it was coming up on 2 PM, and we had made plans to leave and go do some shopping. Aunt Prim need a card for tomorrow, we had forgotten a sundry or two, and Margo and Prim had come up with the idea of building a basket of goodies for the sisters to share. Things like cookies and candy, which were treats they did not often get.
We had made these plans, because Sister Stephanie and told us that she would be leaving with the rest of the jubilarians to go to the cathedral and practice. We recalled that last time Sister Stephanie had to be sequestered (probably not the right word), to pray and get ready spiritually for her celebration. Uncle Donnie and I were a bit puzzled as to what they needed to practice. Last time, they marched down the aisle and sat down for mass. They have been doing that for decades.
As it turned out there had been a communication failure, and the dispatch time was for Sunday and she had the afternoon free. We mentioned the shopping, but not the pending gift, and Sister Stephanie said she could take a nap. I was feeling a little guilty for not spending the afternoon with her, but I thought our hearts were in the right place, and we promised to come back after we were done.
We found a Walmart and spent the next two hours picking out the things we needed and then deciding on what to get the sisters. What started out as a gift basket, turned into a laundry basket filled with goodies, as there were so many things we wanted to include. Margo and Aunt Prim wanted to decorate the basket, so they got some red tulle, a net like fabric. We got a card, and were soon on our way to the hotel.
We went back to The Casa, arriving around 4 PM. I think it was time well spent, as we had so little time to visit. I had hoped to gather stories of when Sister Stephanie and Uncle Donnie were young, but the subjects did not come up, and there were very few lulls in the conversations. Sister Stephanie had indeed spent the couple of hours we were gone taking a nap.
I settled for learning why Sister Stephanie is known as Sister Stephanie Our Lady of Fatima. The extra on the end of her name is the equivalent of a surname, to distinguish between her and any other Sister Stephanie’s. She took the name shortly after her taking her vows, 60 years ago. She chose the Our Lady part, and presumably the senior sister or sisters picked of Fatima for her. We visited until 5:20 and said our good-byes, and told her we would see her tomorrow; the Big Day.
When we got back to hotel, Margo and Aunt Prim got to work weaving the tulle in and out of the holes in the laundry basket, and then backing it full of the goodies. They finished it up, by tying the ends of the tulle up in a bow, on one end of the basket. For a plain white laundry basket, it looked pretty good.
We were all hungry by now, and we decided on Olive Garden. We wanted something “safe” and Uncle Donnie wanted a place to grab a beer. We ate upstairs, and this was the first Olive Garden I ever seen with an elevator. This ended up being the best meal of the trip for me. I had the Tour of Italy, Uncle Donnie had Shrimp Alfredo, which I believe is his usual. I don’t recall what the ladies had. The food was good. We were all tired, so back to the hotel. We made plans to have breakfast at the hotel, and said good night.
I navigated and did a good job of relaying exit numbers and distance, to Uncle Donnie, who handled the California traffic like he did it all the time. I notice he stayed in the right lane most of time, which is usually the lane for cowards. But, much more often than not, this was the fastest moving lane, so it was certainly the correct lane to be in. I would have hoped, had I been driving I would have noticed this and stayed right. Of course, maybe because this is California, too many people are prejudiced against anything right, leaving it for us. We got there at 7:25 AM, right on time.
We were let in by a member of the staff, who was working on some cleaning chore. I announced that we were there to kidnap Sister Stephanie and take her to breakfast. I expected a grin and a joke back, but she looked like she was unsure if she should slam the door or let us in. I quickly let her know that we had permission, and we would bring her back. But even as she let us in, she looked unsure. I must look more dangerous than I thought.
I had located a Denny’s, not trusting anything except a chain restaurant after last night’s night gastro-surprise. Everyone thought that was a good idea, and we were pulling into the parking lot, about 10 minutes later.
Denny’s gave us their menu, plus a special one touting their crepe breakfasts. The strawberry ones looked appealing to everyone. I think four out of five of us got that, with our choice of eggs being the only difference. They turned out to be very good. No complaints about this meal.
After we had finished and were making our small talk before leaving a gentlemen came over to our table to talk to Sister Stephanie and ask her some questions. We let him know that she was celebrating 60 years as a nun and he let us know he had a close relative who was also a habited nun. They had a nice conversation ending with him congratulating her on her achievement. Then it was back to the car and back to The Casa.
I had expressed an interest in seeing the grounds, and all of the flowers that were planted there. Sister Stephanie was happy to get permission and lead us on a tour. We started with the courtyard, which is surrounded on all four sides making it very tranquil. There was a sister working diligently on one section of the garden, picking dead pieces of the plants to spur growth. There was another sister who joined us shortly who took several pictures of us together.
We moved outside the compound to several areas, all of them surprisingly quiet. There was not a ton of traffic in this area. We really were impressed by the several jacaranda trees which were on the grounds. They had very pretty purple flowers, which dominated the tree. There were green leaves, but all of the purple blotted them out.
There was a new area, still being finished. It had most of the plants in it, but the watering system was still being installed. There were no workers when we were there. It was going to be a very nice place to sit and read, pray, or just relax when it was finished.
After our tour we went back inside to visit and reminisce some more. The time past quickly and soon it was lunch time. We had made no plans, and Sister Stephanie asked if we would like to join her and the sisters for lunch. That sounded like an interesting experience, so we all jumped at the change.
The sisters have a cafeteria large enough for about 25 or 30 people, and is set up to be served buffet-style. There were tables and benches. The tables had a drawer under each setting which could hold plenty of things, but in this case, a hymnal. This would come in handy, as because this was the feast day for St. James, we would be singing the blessing, instead of just listening to someone say grace, and we all say Amen.
This was a little intimidating because even with a hymnal (song book), the words were very unfamiliar. It was not like we would be singing Happy Birthday. And, because even though the hymnal told us it was sung to the tune of “blank”, if I had ever heard of “blank” in my life, I could no more recall it than the first time I tasted chocolate. And, it would be done acapella, no music. If all of this was not enough, Sister Mary Michael, the sister in charge, mentioned she wanted us to make sure she could hear us. Gulp.
I could hear Uncle Donnie, who was right beside me. I could hear the sisters, who sang in loud clear voices, but that was it. I have no doubt the fear of lightning bolts prevented mouthing the words by my aunt and bride, but they likely were not singing in full voice. I confess to not either. My singing voice is not one of God’s gifts to the world.
The food was good, prepared by cooks, rather than the sisters. As they had been serving God for many years, it was nice to see them served by someone else. There was a variety of things, with a couple kinds of protein, chicken and beef, vegetables, fruit and nuts, and cookies for dessert.
After lunch it was coming up on 2 PM, and we had made plans to leave and go do some shopping. Aunt Prim need a card for tomorrow, we had forgotten a sundry or two, and Margo and Prim had come up with the idea of building a basket of goodies for the sisters to share. Things like cookies and candy, which were treats they did not often get.
We had made these plans, because Sister Stephanie and told us that she would be leaving with the rest of the jubilarians to go to the cathedral and practice. We recalled that last time Sister Stephanie had to be sequestered (probably not the right word), to pray and get ready spiritually for her celebration. Uncle Donnie and I were a bit puzzled as to what they needed to practice. Last time, they marched down the aisle and sat down for mass. They have been doing that for decades.
As it turned out there had been a communication failure, and the dispatch time was for Sunday and she had the afternoon free. We mentioned the shopping, but not the pending gift, and Sister Stephanie said she could take a nap. I was feeling a little guilty for not spending the afternoon with her, but I thought our hearts were in the right place, and we promised to come back after we were done.
We found a Walmart and spent the next two hours picking out the things we needed and then deciding on what to get the sisters. What started out as a gift basket, turned into a laundry basket filled with goodies, as there were so many things we wanted to include. Margo and Aunt Prim wanted to decorate the basket, so they got some red tulle, a net like fabric. We got a card, and were soon on our way to the hotel.
We went back to The Casa, arriving around 4 PM. I think it was time well spent, as we had so little time to visit. I had hoped to gather stories of when Sister Stephanie and Uncle Donnie were young, but the subjects did not come up, and there were very few lulls in the conversations. Sister Stephanie had indeed spent the couple of hours we were gone taking a nap.
I settled for learning why Sister Stephanie is known as Sister Stephanie Our Lady of Fatima. The extra on the end of her name is the equivalent of a surname, to distinguish between her and any other Sister Stephanie’s. She took the name shortly after her taking her vows, 60 years ago. She chose the Our Lady part, and presumably the senior sister or sisters picked of Fatima for her. We visited until 5:20 and said our good-byes, and told her we would see her tomorrow; the Big Day.
When we got back to hotel, Margo and Aunt Prim got to work weaving the tulle in and out of the holes in the laundry basket, and then backing it full of the goodies. They finished it up, by tying the ends of the tulle up in a bow, on one end of the basket. For a plain white laundry basket, it looked pretty good.
We were all hungry by now, and we decided on Olive Garden. We wanted something “safe” and Uncle Donnie wanted a place to grab a beer. We ate upstairs, and this was the first Olive Garden I ever seen with an elevator. This ended up being the best meal of the trip for me. I had the Tour of Italy, Uncle Donnie had Shrimp Alfredo, which I believe is his usual. I don’t recall what the ladies had. The food was good. We were all tired, so back to the hotel. We made plans to have breakfast at the hotel, and said good night.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Day Three-
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Day Four-
Day Five
