I thought that because it is the month of Mary.. I would tell you of yet another time that I went in search of her..
I had read of Our Lady of Guadalupe somewhere once.. and decided that I would visit the shrine when I went to America. but silly me didn't realize that this particular Guadalupe was in Mexico.. I did find Guadalupe in California somewhere, though.. not the same..
so instead, we drove to San Francisco to see the missions that we had also heard about.. quite a funny scenario actually.. dutch husband, myself & 3 children age 12, 7 and baby Sophie in a pram .. traipsing to the missions - (it was more like me racing all over the place and them following behind wondering what the hell I was doing now), through some, let's say undesirable areas..
completely oblivious because I was on a mission of my own. to light a candle in an ancient church for my friend Bernadette who was dying of breast cancer at the time.. finally found our way to the mission and dutch husband took the children out into the herb garden while I prayed..
I bought a taper and proceeded to light a votive.. all went according to plan until I tried to blow the taper out and it would not go out.. it kept burning, with me blowing frantically on the flame.. shaking it and blowing.. I turned round to find dutch husband videoing me.. by this time the flame was quite big and all I could think of was burning this 200yrs old mission to the ground. so I threw the taper onto the floor and stomped on it... anyhow.. candle was lit and I went out and wandered the herb garden for awhile and then began the walk back to our 'home' - a hotel somewhere in San Francisco... back through the undesirable parts, [not knowing they were undesirable at the time.]. - a taxi screeched to a stop and the taxi driver said to us..'what the hell are you doing walking this neighbour hood? get in, I will take you where you want to go'... he didn't want paying, but we gave him a tip.... many times like that in our world travels.. being totally oblivious to the dangers of where we are.. not sure if I would do it now ... maybe Mary was protecting us.
and you know what? I cannot for the life of me remember the name of that Mission.
[hope you enjoyed that little story.. ]
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7 comments:
It's probably just as well you can't remember the name, so that if you go back to SF you can find missions in safer places!!!
xx
Oh, She was protecting you for sure! Her guardian angel was the taxi driver.
Thanks for sharing this story. I could just picture you doing battle with that candle.
Mary
what an amazing story, do your children remember it at all?
All along the coast of California there are Missions. I have always thought it would be a wonderful pilgrimage to stop at each of those missions.
So when the taxi driver picked you up and gave you free ride. Where you in what they call the tenderlion dist? I like the bay area but not the prices.
Hope your doing well.
Coffee is on.
LOVED your post title, Robyn and what a nice post too. I believe that taxi driver was sent to you. :)
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