Make the time, visit , invite, love.

They're from Gloucester,  they're always from Gloucester , but not always. Those who die early in life, are not always from Gloucester. They're from everywhere.

God Bless .

THE PERFECT STORM, a great movie that often plays out real in everyday life.

GLOUCESTER, THEY'RE ALWAYS FROM GLOUCESTER 👂👂

Listen , remember that line.? 

The loss of life on the Emmy Rose , is just like the movie, The Perfect Storm. That movie sticks in my head,  because it was the last movie my family & I watched with Mom a few days after Christmas , 2000. Wow, almost 20 years ago, but I remember the sequence of events well those last few months of Mom's life. I rented the movie from Blockbuster video, we all liked The Perfect Storm, based on a true story. I read the true accounting of the incident in a book of the same name this summer.

Less than 2 1/2 months later Mom died of leukemia, buried the day after I turned 43 years of age, suddenly I felt much much older than I ever felt on any birthday before or since. It was sad. On my birthday, of the 11th day of March in the year 2001,  between the funeral sessions, I was surprised with a birthday cake, I cried, first time I cried in front of non family members. It was also the last time I was surprised with a birthday cake. That's unimportant, just a fact. I heard the story, that I also cried on my first birthday because I wanted my Mom, why ? She wasn't at my party, she was in the hospital as she gave birth to my sister a few days prior. Ironic, that the only two times I cried on my birthday were both because I missed my mother. 

It sucked. It really sucked. 

It was not the best birthday spending it at a funeral home, knowing tomorrow a Funeral Mass, and Christian burial.

But like those fishermen who 

perished on the Andrea Gail & the Emmy Rose, and my mother, it's up to God when we leave and the day is never known, sometimes suddenly without warning, sometimes with an illness and the final day isn't known , but it's approaching. Or trapped on a vessel, and it's not getting those on board home safely.

Make sure you take the time to spend time with those you love , that have made a difference in your life, they made an effort to give you all they were able. That's life , people are born, people die, time is sometimes rather fleeting.

I remember that I did so with Mom & Dad those couple of days in December, 2000. We laughed, we ate, we enjoyed a movie, we conversed, she & Dad came to Lauren's CYO basketball game ( so after all the hundreds of athletic contests Mom attended & cheered her offspring on, that was the finale, it  was a victory).  Mom was a very proud mother , and grandmother. We showed our love, we all said I love you to each other. Next time, I saw Mom was in North Shore Hospital with only a few weeks to live. 

I'd rather remember the days in December. We celebrated the birth of Jesus, in the hospital we were saying goodbye and sadly anticipating her death.

😢😢🙏🙏