29) Today’s Date: 7 February 2006
To: My Son, Family, Friends and Strangers-No-Longer!
From: Anna Bernadette
RE: 1- Events and Remembrances to Celebrate; 2- ‘Sayings of Mom and Dad’ and 3- ON BEING GRATEFUL!
1- Events to Celebrate:
JANUARY 2006
1st-Mary, Mother of God! 5- Gabriel Pierce is 8; 14th~Uncle Hector and Wife~28 years celebrating the Sacrament of Matrimony!; 15th~Jamie is 40!; 20th~Uncle Lee J. is 63; 25th~Jason is 28 and 31st~ Benjamin Lee is 25.
FEBRUARY 2006
1st~ Dominique Joseph, Jr. is 17 and Grandparents Day!; 4th~ Makenzie Lynn is 5; 7th~ Veronica Gertrude is 47!; 9th~ Uncle Dominique and Aunt Tina ~ 26 years +++ Lawrence Joseph and Jolene 5 years celebrating the Sacrament of Matrimony! And Madison Claire is 15!; 16th~ Kameron LaRae is 9; 25th~ Aunt Ursula is 51 and Katherine Anne is 24.
MARCH 2006
1st~ Ash Wednesday! 2nd~ Jon ‘Dylan’ is 11; 14th~ Aunt Anne is 59; 20th~ Robert Joseph, Jr. is 39 and SPRING begins!
2- Sayings of Mom and Dad!
266. Black is black and white is white. But, if it’s a gray area, you might want to take another look at the situation!
267. You never know what will tickle your funny bone!
268. Time will tell!
269. During the television commercials, rest your eyes, study the inside of your eye balls!
270. Goodnight Irene!
271. They get you coming and going!
272. If it doesn’t kill you it will make you stronger!
273. We all have our cross to bear…you get out of bed each morning and put one foot in front of the other!
274. That poor old soul!
3- ON BEING GRATEFUL!
+ Uncle Dominique and Aunt Tina made the final move into their new location with the LAKE ARTHUR BUTANE COMPANY 1 February 2006! It is a beautiful place and great location to buy propane et al! Daddy would be so very proud of you and would be tickled pink to be in a brand spanking new building on a main thoroughfare in a new town with new tanks, great storage area, a large counter with cash register (!) and pictures of family on the wall with his crucifix framed in cypress! All of the parts are in place; now that it’s built, they will come!! Nique, siblings, cousins Kevin and Adam gathered on a fine Saturday and assisted the ‘experienced crew’ in placing the tanks and outdoor merchandise just right! Then with rags in hand we wiped down the inside and did windows! Aunt Ione jumped behind the wheel of the big truck heading back to town for another load; we blessed her, the truck and David as she drove off with quite the grin on her face!!
+ I gathered up Anne Fautt at the old grocery store in Holmwood a while back and off we drove for a Broussard clan funeral in Grand Chenier. It was Anne’s first trip since Hurricane Rita and it is such a devastating, heart wrenching drive. Grandma Monlezuns’ great-niece was buried with relatives attending from far and wide. Anne took photos of all while I was accumulating names and phone numbers as a Broussard-Miller reunion is being discerned, God only knows when! We walked around the cemetery and identified names of Grandma’s Aunts and Uncles! I have photos of their damaged homes on The Ridge. Anne and I then drove back to Lake Arthur by way of Kaplan making our way through the rice fields with a beautiful sunset talking of Mom and Dad, grandparents and making memories ourselves! After eight hours out, I walked into Spring Street with a grateful heart of all of those who have gone before and embracing the fact it is now our turn to do all of the good that we can do with the time we have on this side!
+ GRANDPARENTS DAY WITH SUZANNE LOUISE is one of my favorite days of the year!! She invites me in that I have the grayest hair! We begin our special time at Mass; the keyboard was wonderfully played by Becky Liprie, Aunt Tina’s sister who played the Halleluiah Chorus for us Christmas Eve! Then on to the classroom for show and tell! I squeeze into her desk (!) and am handed her hand drawn note…“Aunt Bet thank you for coming today. I have always wanted you to come to Grand Parent’s Day because I think you are most like grandma. Every kid in my class has a grandmother, but you help me not to be so sad. I love you. MaMa was the only grandparent I’ve ever had. I was young when she died. I still remember her, and I will always love her. Thanks, I love you.” She drew Mom in the clouds with blue wings and a smile! I needed tissue and she said, “Well, enough about that…!!” She proceeded to show me her papers, drawings while explaining it all, everything on the walls and on book shelves in the sweet classroom; I was introduced to the very young teacher who called me Aunt Bette! The youngest grandchild (Robbie is the oldest!) and I then went around the room and visited with others whose grandparents couldn’t be there and looked and listened to their stories and drawings and again toured the classroom and laughed with them…that’s what MawMaw would have done!!! God love ‘um all!
+ INVITATION! The last Sunday of the month, I am cantoring Fr. Joe McGrath’s 10:00 am Sunday morning Mass at St. Patrick Mission Chapel in Sweetlake for Cameron Parish parishioners. You are most welcome to join in song singing to the hearts of those who have lost so much and truly seek and appreciate the healing balm of music. Fr. Joe is grateful for whatever he receives. They really love the old songs - O Lord I Am Not Worthy, Panis Angelicus, Ave Maria, On This Day O Beautiful Mother…! Also, On Eagle’s Wings, Here I Am, Be Not Afraid! Give me a call, show up
around 9:40-ish, sit by the organ and yes, YOU may sing harmony!! I’ll have the music if you have the time! Danke!
+ Just received a package by mail and the familiar hand reads, “Babette, A belated Ground’s Hog Day or an early St. Valentine’s Day gift. In WW ll, the Red Cross gave us girls in Sr. or Jr. High, yarn & instructions to knit a sleeveless sweater for a soldier. I hope it kept them warm. 60 years later, I picked up my knitting needles again. Enjoy! Aunt To-To!!! Around my neck is a beautiful and special RED scarf handmade by my Godmother which I will cherish forever and store next to the one sewn for me by Grandma Monlezun! (I wonder if I’m teachable…and if I start now, Suzanne Louise can wear it her final year at college??!!!) Thank you, Aunt To-To!
Supplications have stormed the gates of heaven for my loved ones who have requested prayer for all special intentions. Be assured that daily Mass and rosaries are offered, the votive at our home altar burns for you, knees are bent and hands are folded for all of my own in sickness and in health, through death and in life,
in trials and pure tribulation…
all while living the ordinary praying unceasingly.
I love all who you are in the process of becoming in His image and likeness.
Lead, Kindly Light!
30) Today’s Date: 8 March 2006 From: Uncle Dominique & Aunt Bernadette
RE: “Happenings!”
Uncle Dominique…
+ You are cordially invited to come on out and enjoy, in particular, the Lake Arthur Butane Company (LABC) display #61 & 62 at the 15th annual Home Builders Association of SWLA extravaganza at the Civic Center Coliseum this Saturday and Sunday March 11 and 12th, 2006!! The LABC display will include, to name at few items, the latest in efficient new heating wall units, floor heaters with that vintage look (!), fireplace with mantel, patio lighting and shiny new outdoor grills hooked to a proper propone bottle! See the American Press for details of this high traffic event!
Aunt Bernadette…
+ Aunt Constance and I journeyed to Maurice, LA this Saturday past to attend the Broussard Family Reunion finding the-link-name to Grandma Victoria Monlezun while there and that we were the 11th Generation sitting in the room of all kin/100+ in attendance!!! This wonderful man with his laptop brought up on the monitor the link down to PawPaw’s name saying he didn’t have anyone after! We assured him that we did and the chain goes on!! Aunt Constance Victoria purchased the entire Broussard CD for linking with our family blue binder! I purchased Uncles Hector and Vic’s dinner-to-go after the lunch!! We almost had to eat their dinners for six miles before Holmwood, it was noticed quite by accident that we were on empty! She slowed down (!), we prayed the Hail Mary with words added and coasted in amongst many pick-up trucks at the Holmwood corner store. We waltzed into the back bar where the drivers of said pick-up trucks were gathered! We exclaimed our dilemma and immediately Mr. Natali and son were at the very empty tank with a five-gallon insert of petro and would not take a red cent for it! We hugged both gentlemen thanking them profusely and knowing that Daddy was rolling his eyes, we sped on home.
+Miss Renee and I planted flowers and labored (she mostly who is younger!) this past Friday as she and another friend, Betty Hamilton (the lady at the sign-in table for the Monlezun Reunion) gave to Arthur Avenue mucho plants and cuttings saved from their own devastated yards! I am appreciative to our Lisa and family who these 2 years past have put the beauty in the ground for all to enjoy and praying her full recovery from her recent medical encounter! This year these friends who have lost so much to Hurricane Rita had the pleasure of giving to us and for those attending Silent Retreats particularly this year of so much loss, sadness and displacement.
+Tomorrow I interview Uncle Lee J. on ‘Lead, Kindly Light’…his opening question post-introduction is ‘What in your upbringing has been the golden thread of faithfulness in the process of becoming who The Father created you to be?” The final question is “Looking back over your own ancestry, how are you directed to your future? Some in-between questions are “What have 30 years of medical practice given you as to insight on what constitutes a truly healthy person?” “Which of your specialties is the more meaningful to the greatest number of your patients?” “How do you envision the future of the practice of medicine?” And, “In these your middle years (!), what is your philosophy on the meaning of life?” Airing date is June 25, 2006. I can’t wait for tomorrow!! Lead, Kindly Light!
31. Today’s Date: 4 April 2006
To: Son, Family, Friends and Strangers-No-Longer!
From: Anna Bernadette
RE: ‘Happenings’ and ‘Sayings of Mom and Dad!’
HAPPENINGS~
+ Forty meetings/onsite visits to date, four television interviews, networking with many interesting people post-Hurricanes Katrina/Rita and currently the formation of the ‘Mayor’s Avian Influenza Task Force’ is now enough information for two new links on www.leadkindlylight.net under the category To Teach click Creative Network Resource List (CNRL)/Hurricane and/or CNRL/Influenza! There has been a whole lot of reading and input going on and more every day for this Pink Lady but there is a definite interest in wiring diagrams of who is doing what and where and so I serve with all my heart and share my website of information which many have found their way to especially, for a change of pace, the ‘Sayings of Mom and Dad!’ The challenges for ‘Special Needs Patients’ at CHRISTUS St. Patrick Hospital Departments of Coordinated Care/Marketing and Cameron Parish (Old MawMaw Monlezuns’ land of origin/relatives everywhere!) are tremendous and so I network in the system akin to my work and training in the job of Congressional Assistant in this 7th Congressional District many moons ago and as Assistant Director of the Human Relations Commission, Office of the Governor many, many moons ago! Tomorrow is the monthly meeting for Cameron Parish Unmet Needs Committee and so it goes… as we are back in the hurricane preparedness mode as well as multitudes of Unmet Needs!!! Between Hurricane and Influenza links and meetings, I spend much time in prayer for guidance, focus and resolve…speaking of which….
…“I love the baby shoes; I think I will place my children’s baby shoes around my FEMA trailer and just enjoy them” was uttered by a lady during Silent Retreat (the 27th since MawMaw died attended by 175 people to date) on Arthur Avenue this past weekend! It was a special Retreat for ladies who have suffered much from ‘Rita’ and they were so grateful for a Retreat and in awe that a family has what we have and shares it with ‘strangers-no-longer’! One lady sat down and just wept and by the end of the day was smiling and ready to face the world again. She particularly loved MawMaw’s chair just staring out of the windows, rocking and rocking. They exclaim how they love the peace, serenity and beauty of 327 inside and out. Miss Renee and I planted flowers and labored (she mostly who is younger!) as she and another friend, Betty Hamilton (the lady at the sign-in table for the Monlezun Reunion) gave mucho plants and cuttings saved from their own devastated yards and from The Ridge! I am appreciative to our Lisa and family who these 2 years past have put the beauty in the ground for all to enjoy and praying her full and total recovery from her medical encounter! This year these friends who have lost so much to Hurricane Rita had the joy of giving to us and for those attending Silent Retreats particularly this year of so much loss, sadness and displacement.
+Antoine Adolfo Ponton was crowned King of the second annual ‘Mardi Gras 2006’ during The Ball celebrated at his church parish ‘Jesus the Good Shepherd’ in Monroe, LA! He organized two full tables of friends and well, they did party, umbrella, beads et al! Too wonderful! I get him both ways!! Also this Easter Vigil he companions another friend into the Catholic Church, said parish, as her RCIA sponsor. Three ways…!!! They sure will miss him when he’s gone!!
+For those who missed an earlier email as I have a new computer LSD (!) system and some got, some didn’t…Aunt Constance and I journeyed to Maurice, LA in March to attend the Broussard Family Reunion finding the-link-name to Grandma Victoria Monlezun while there and that we were the 11th Generation sitting in the room of all kin/100+ in attendance!!! This wonderful man with his laptop brought up on the monitor the link down to PawPaw’s name saying he didn’t have anyone after! We assured him that we did and the chain goes on!! Aunt Constance Victoria purchased the entire Broussard CD for linking with our family blue binder! I purchased Uncles Hector and Vic’s dinner-to-go after the lunch!! We almost had to eat their dinners for six miles before Holmwood, it was noticed quite by accident that we were on empty! She slowed down (!), we prayed the Hail Mary with words added and coasted in amongst many pick-up trucks at the Holmwood corner store. We waltzed into the back bar where the drivers of said pick-up trucks were gathered and it grew very quite! We exclaimed our dilemma and immediately Mr. Natali and son were at the very empty tank with a five-gallon insert of petro and would not take a red cent for it! We hugged both gentlemen thanking them profusely and knowing that Daddy was rolling his eyes, we sped on home.
+St. Maria Goretti Catholic School Special Collection at the McNeese State University Library Archives and Special Collections Department is officially registered. My modest collection of high school memorabilia, in that I was one of only twenty in the first graduation class of 1965 with the remaining siblings hence, officially opened the collection last week! Those of us involved in this wonderful project feel it was the legacy of our founder Rev. Harry Pelous (whose picture is now in the building!) to do what one can in reverencing and in gratitude to those who have gone before and are with us still! The students are the living legacy! Parents of Goretti students will also be listed on the loan or donation tent card of items. Mrs. Douglas Higgins donated a few precious items to include a wonderful blue athletes’ cape for the collection! Cousin Alberta, Constance and I recently had lunch with Fr. Donald Pelous who taught us at Goretti and he was so very pleased to hear of this wonderful and meaningful ‘Collection’ telling us of his brother and his love for our school. Interesting notation: Our first yearbook 1965 just before it went to press included memorial photos of Alvin and Veronica in that they had just died. I included in my collection a copy of ‘God’s Gifts…’ by Steve Marceaux, a Goretti graduate and Alvin’s contemporary in which he captured that day 41 years later, the day after I graduated from Goretti High School! Steve graciously sent a copy of his book to Fr. Donald! If you don’t die young life is long and can be redemptive in suffering if we but pray and serve!
SAYINGS OF MOM & DAD!!~ 429 to date!!! I just can’t believe they keep on comin!! But wonderful to record!
266. Black is black and white is white. But, if it’s a gray area, you might want to take another look at the situation!
267. You never know what will tickle your funny bone!
268. Time will tell!
269. During the television commercials, rest your eyes, study the inside of your eye balls!
270. Goodnight Irene!
271. They get you coming and going!
272. If it doesn’t kill you it will make you stronger!
273. We all have our cross to bear…you get out of bed each morning and put one foot in front of the other!
274. That poor old soul!
275. You’d better watch those hips girl and lay off those potato chips!!
276. I gave up watermelon for Lent!
May this beautiful Easter as the earth blooms in all of her profusion of pure delight
be a blessed time of true Resurrection in your lives and resolve to serve The Father wherever He sends you. He gives us the grace and courage to not just persevere but thrive if we but ask and then, listen! So many are in need of assistance and, once again in history, the will to begin again with nothing left but each other and grit!
‘If you have a Why to live for, you can live with any How!’ Lead, Kindly Light!
31) Friday 23 June 2006, Feast of the Sacred Heart!
To: The Greater Monlezun Family
From: Anna ‘Aunt’ Bernadette
RE: ‘This Christmas’ & ‘A Family Reunion!’
It is six months counting to Christmas Eve on Arthur Avenue and plans are once again in place and oh so early!!! We are definitely in the ‘Preparedness Mode’ this year and beyond post-Rita; we’ve learned readiness and communication is of the essence! Lordy-mercy! Pray your hurricane prayer!
- Uncles Lee Joseph, Dominique Joseph and Anna Bernadette, Gardener (!) Caretaker, are thrilled to invite you for all the years to Arthur Avenue for our families traditional Christmas Eve, on a glorious Sunday this year, complete with hayride, hot chocolate if weather allows, gumbo & trimmings, napping in the recliners, catch-up on the newsy-news per life, Santa Claus (a ‘rock star from the East Pole but shuew, don’t tell the children!), sitting around the table and the Christmas Tree with the wonderful assortment of ornaments of old and relatively new, gifts everywhere, babies to rock and seasonal songs to thrill the soul! (There is additional outdoor furniture on the swing porch, thank you Uncle Dominique!, sitting next to the wooden furniture that has been stained a light brown and looks absolutely new again and ready for the generations to arrive!!) More information on #A will be forthcoming as the Season of His Birth approaches.
- ‘Christmas Adam’/‘Eve-Eve’ on Saturday December 23rd is lined up to float among the beautiful casa’s of the nieces and nephews as the locations rotate from year to glorious year; you will hear from that host/hostess at a later date! Thank you, all eighteen of you and yours, and, I feel I can speak for my siblings, for your previous seasonal tending of our hearth-of-origin to sooth all hearts present after MawMaw died and, these five years of the healing that the richness of time which marches on presents to all! That was the truest of gifts from each of you! He indeed Leads consistently and kindly!
- Sunday, 22 April 2007 Uncles Lee J. and Uncle Dominique have offered Arthur Avenue for the 13th Bi-Annual Joseph and Anna Reiners-Hensgens Family Reunion! Aunt Constance has once again agreed to Co-coordinate with family members just like the Monlezun Family Reunion 2004 which was an incredible historic day indeed! Approximately 150 Hensgens attend! She has spread the word among the Hensgens families to save the date and the invitation to return to ‘Aunt Gert’s and ‘Uncle Lee’s’ home! We have heard wonderful reactions to this early Spring under- the- tents-event along with the viewing- of- the- Hensgens- wall- in- MawMaw’s- room and the whole house – they all remember the table and so many chairs!! They are asking if the milk machine is still there!!! I’ve offered to coordinate the Liturgy with Cousin Alberta on the keyboard having booked Msgr. Robert Angelle last week as the main Celebrant! I spoke with first cousins at a recent Hensgens wedding reception, the ‘hand-off’ of the Hensgens Reunion box of information happened earlier in May, as to the coordination of the ‘Family Directory’ and it’s tending for the ability to access updated current family information which is a grand job for every reunion. These names, addresses and emails would be helpful to have all the year long for weddings, showers, graduations, pertinent electronic communication, etc.. I have an idea as to the input of a ‘Hensgens Family Chronicle’ on my website, utilizing my Webmaster, with current family information being sent for electronic posting by two coordinators per family, preferably two generations working together, so as to pass it forward! More on this link later…mucho work in process but with all the love my heart and mind has to give…! As always, you are invited to come aboard with any of the above!
NOTATION! Out of 19 nieces and nephews, in just May and June 2006, 11 have new residence addresses either permanently or are in transition!!! Incredible swarming! God bless your newest sacred space and I pray you health, joy and peace! And, as MawMaw would say…fill it up slowly. That way you have something to work toward together over time!! (440-to date of ‘Sayings of Mom and Dad’ on my website!)
P.S. Lake Arthur Butane Company (LABC) has a website-in-process. Uncle Dominique invites you to click in and any suggestions are appreciated. LABC was sixty-one years young on June 15, 2006! Wouldn’t PawPaw applaud this technological way of marketing and be thrilled to see Dominique’s trucks and propane tanks on the internet?! http://propanepeople.tripod.com/index.htm
We plan with you in mind for we feel that one of the truest meanings of stewardship is manifested in our people and in our sacred places of homes and businesses of which we are simply the caretakers in this time, in this place. It is pure blessing to be able to pick up the ball and carry it for the time that we have. As you know, we all take this ancestral duty very seriously and delight in lining it all up for you to enjoy! “Ya’ll have fun!”
Lead, Kindly Light!
32) 2 October 2006, Feast of the Guardian Angels!
FROM: Anna ‘Aunt’ Bernadette
TO: My Son, Family, Friends and Strangers-no-longer!
RE: Events, Travel and the Order of St. Benedict!
+ Antoine Adolfo fulfilled his college term with a May graduation and a joyous reception attended by mucho family and friends with a duo musical ensemble to dance the night away! He had another grand summer as a Sailing Instructor/Counselor at Camp Sea Gull on the Outer Banks of North Carolina! He is residing with a very wonderfully generous family and is job interviewing and residence hunting in Raleigh, NC with many weekends spent at a family friends’ beach house in Beaufort, NC and some weekends at Camp Sea Gull on staff! This Beaufort family gathered Camp friends for his Grand Birthday, 24 on the 24th of July celebrating with Uncle Hector who turned a young 70 on the 25th of July 2006. It was pure delight! (See my website, first link “We Love You More Than Life Itself”, a birthday present!!)
+ I recently spent time at Trinity College in Washington, DC with my Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. I attended classes again for the Education for Parish Service (EPS) program from which I graduated the year we retired to Louisiana with Mom attending the service in the Chapel on campus. It was perfect to be back at Trinity and to visit Newman Bookstore across from Catholic University where I put a huge dent in the Benedictine Monastic Spirituality section! We drove on down to Raleigh, NC spending time with Antoine, meeting his host family and attending Mass at his new parish, Sacred Heart Cathedral parish; the celebrant who had met us prior to Mass hearing that Antoine was a Eucharistic Minister and R.C.I.A. sponsor twice, called on the Louisiana family (Ms. Renee included!) to stand and introduced Antoine as their newest parishioner and his Mom ‘who was moving him to Raleigh’ (!)…applause with big grins in the congregation. Antoine sat rather quickly but with a smile on his tanned-tanned handsome face! I couldn’t be more proud of him who is in the process of becoming a man created in The Father’s image and likeness who will serve others.
+ Post-Hurricane Rita found me volunteering and attending many monthly meetings for our Special Needs Patients, Department of Coordinated Care at CHRISTUS St. Patrick Hospital, about 54 in all! (See my website, “Hurricanes and Influenza!) At the one year mark of Rita, I am in the process of returning to my home and ministries-in-progress! Msgr. Irving A. DeBlanc died on July 16, 2006 and I am without my friend-of-old, teacher, Shepherd and Spiritual Advisor! I contacted my Olivetan Benedictine Sisters in Arkansas, journeyed to the Convent spending some August days in quiet, discernment, prayer and visits with many of the Sisters that taught me and my younger siblings at St. Maria Goretti Elementary and High School in Lake Arthur, LA. It was cathartic and restful; I even hiked the acreage! After studying Benedictine Monastic Spirituality for many years now teaching it at my Silent Retreats over the years (the first of November 2006 is #30 retreat on Arthur Avenue since Mom died) and in discernment as to writing about its parallelism with the ‘domestic church’ which is the home, I am in formation to become a Benedictine Oblate, by His grace, with official enrollment October 21, 2006 in Arkansas. It is time. (My teacher and friend-of-old who died in 2000, Sr. Yvonne Lerner, O.S.B. began this particular Oblate program; she taught Constance and I the Mass sung in Latin!!) FYI - The duties of an Oblate, a Christian “of the world” who offers herself or himself to God by living the Rule of St. Benedict, offers a wonderful opportunity for turning the ordinary Christian life into something more spiritually satisfying: 1. pray daily the Divine Office, 2. read the Rule of St. Benedict each day, 3. practice the lectio divina each day; this meditative reading from the Holy Scriptures or other religious writings expands our love, knowledge and appreciation of the spiritual way of life, 4. participate frequently in the Sacraments of the Eucharist and Reconciliation and 5. Be attentive to God’s presence in his/her ordinary, daily life! (See Read! Read! Read! on my website if interested in further reading on (Benedictine) Monastic Spirituality and Silent Retreat Series for putting hands and feet to this ancient spirituality!)
+ Constance and I have entertained the troops at Villa Maria twice now! This last time in between the ‘old’ songs I would interject with stories about our upbringing among ten children in L.A., our parents work, faith, Christmas Eve gathering and hayride caroling for those who knew our family over the years and how Constance and I would learn the songs heard on KLFY at very young ages with Mom directing! It was all wonderfully received with rapt attention and big smiles, a captive audience! Then, I sang, “Put Your Sweet Lips A Little Closer to the Phone” and as Uncle Hector looked on in glee, there was a surprising round of applause!!! This is not to be sung as a Responsorial Psalm! Now that song goes way back! Constance got the prize applause with her yodeling… “All Around the Water Tank” Uncle Robert!!!
+ In August, I gathered up Anne Fautt and attended the funeral in Opelousas for Sr. Lurline Broussard, Marionites of the Holy Cross, second cousin to PawPaw! Her mother was PawPaw’s Godmother, Mary Monlezun-Broussard. The Joachin Monlezun cousins were there in many numbers as well as her dear order Sisters. We attended the reception at the convent with many of the ‘wisdom’ Sisters, a few are from Lake Arthur and classmates of Anne! Sr. Lurline loved our family and there is correspondence on Arthur Avenue over the years attesting to that fact. Uncle Charles and Aunt Sharon attended the Wake of Clara Habetz, the matriarch of Roberts Cove, in Rayne, LA the night before. Sr. Lurline and Clara died at the same exact hour on the same day and were buried the same day at the exact hour in Roberts Cove and Opelousas respectively! It takes a village…
+ Uncle Héctor continues to enjoy translating in the judicial system…in court rooms and attorneys offices in the area. It is interesting work especially with his considerable knowledge of human nature! I am on call to type the invoice!!
+ Ms. Renee (and other Silent Retreat alums some days; a friend washed the kitchen curtains and washed down the walls in the kitchen nook last week! There is always something to clean!) and I continue to journey to Arthur Avenue on Fridays to retreat, think, read, tah-tah in the beautiful flowers; she has planted a profusion of color as befitting the gift of someone raised on The Ridge! Aunt Constance purchased for Arthur Avenue while on their anniversary excursion a small outdoor statue of the Holy Family! It sits perfectly on an aluminum outdoor table from Uncle Dominique in front of the NEW kitchen ac (The living room ac is also new!)
+ Germanfest # 12 is this weekend October 7th & 8th 2006 …See my website “Where Are My Keys and Let’s Go” for details! I shared the details live on KPLC today in costume with gift shop items! I’m finally learning the German songs well enough to look up from the songbook!
All is well in my Benedictine soul and in apostolic action; I pray the same for you and yours all the days of our lives. As Monsignor would say, “How does this that I do today affect me for all eternity?” I love you one and all! Lead, Kindly Light!
33) Date: 13 December 2006
To: The Greater Monlezun Family
From: Uncles Lee Joseph, Dominique Joseph and Aunt Bernadette
Re: Christmas Eve on Arthur Avenue, Sunday 24 December 2006!
Dear Ones,
In gratitude we gather for this annual tradition, begun decades ago by Mom and Dad and, continue by preparing for the opening of our home of origin as well as our hearts, especially for the little ones, the next generation, celebrating together the Eve of the Incarnation of the Word of God made flesh. This is the home where we were made flesh, formed and as part of the ancestral team of foremothers and forefathers, pass it on in gathering, song, prayer, food, gift exchange and swapping stories Christmas Eve on Arthur Avenue!
+Food/Beverages: Bring whatever you wish to serve on the buffet and your beverages. Boneless and skinless chicken and sausage gumbo (!), rice and potato salad will once again be delivered and hot on the stove! Aunt Wanda has graciously offered to bring a honey ham as she said ‘MawMaw used to have!’ (Contact her if available to help with the fixins that go with it!) Wonderful indeed! Thank you Aunt Wanda!
+3:00 p.m. Hayride! Aunt Becky will be awaiting our arrival to once again accompany us in the singing of the Hallelujah Chorus/Messiah that MawMaw and PawPaw began as tradition with their driving to the Lake Charles rehearsals for over 35 years!! They are in their new home and are thrilled to celebrate this special song with us! (I’ll have my book for the men and MawMaw’s book for the altos!)
+Santa Claus at 6:00 p.m. if the North Pole weather is clear and all letter orders have been filled by those busy little elves!
Thank you Uncles Lee J. and Dominique for home and the old red Ford (!), Aunts Sharon for organizing the Christmas name-pull, Wanda for the ham, Becky for the accompaniment, Constance for the new and so improved Santa suit (!), ‘Santa Claus’ as ‘he/she’ practices every year on rotation their “Ho-Ho-Ho!” (Nique, next year!!), Robert Dale for preparing/delivery/pick-up of gumbo and fixins, Ricky and Ms. Renee for the yard tending especially the new rope lights at the back door to light your way! The graves at the cemetery have 4 sets of Christmas flowers to honor our memories. The paper products are out, Christmas tree is up and ready for decorating as the ornaments are labeled and join all the rest of the decorations in their new labeled containers-purple and vintage luggage! And, I put it all back in order on 27 December, MawMaw’s 85th birthday, eating gumbo and anticipating your arrival next year!! In the meantime…Welcome, always!
Notation: There is Christmas Midnight Masses with ‘MawMaws’ choir’ a-singin up a storm in Lake Arthur as well as ‘OLQH Christmas Community Choir’ a-singin in Lake Charles beginning with a Concert of Carols at 11 p.m.!
Wise ones still seek Him for He Leads, Kindly!
Blessed Advent and Christmas Season and see you soon!
January 1, 2007 ~
Thank you, siblings, for the incredible launch of 28 December 2006! The net has been thrown even wider. The Father leads kindly and consistently therefore humbly and constantly I will follow Him wherever He leads! Hence “Happenings” my domestic but monastic rhythm becomes one of a matrix of all good things beginning with my “Web of Gratefulness” where you will know as you are known!
34) Date: 10 March 2007
To: The Greater Hensgens & Monlezun Family
From: Anna Bernadette
RE: You’ll see!!
I know! I know! Thank you for the inquiries as to ‘we-haven’t-received-emails/heard-from-you-what’s-up?!’ However since Monday 1 January 2007, I have:
1. Tended, typed in, scanned, begun the ordering of the Hensgens Family Chronicle on my Web of Gratefulness. This has been a wonderful & intensive labor of love as I am delving into my files and 63 years of Hensgens paper on Arthur Avenue; the Greater Hensgens family is now electronic AND bricks-and-mortar! Aunt Constance is doing a beautiful job of coordinating the Reunion, Sunday 22 April 2007; I had offered and in process of coordinating the liturgy, the template is set for printing, in process of finishing Phase 1 of the Hensgens Data/my website, and ordering the Hensgens Family wall in ‘The Girl’s Room’ on Arthur Avenue complete with a laptop on the dresser that will link us to the Hensgens Family Tree Maker program with names, dates & information such as…!!!
as of 20 February 2007 Greater- Greater Hensgens Family (!) Tree Maker:
1,706 Hensgens (1694 – February 20, 2007)
497 Marriages
342 Surnames
Average Life Span: 63 years and 7 months!!!
Data:
Joseph and Anna Gertrude Reiners-Hensgens ~ 8th Generation from 1694!
Their 8 children are the 9th generation: Uncle Uchie, Aunts Josepha & Frances, Uncle Cony, Aunts Gert & Leona, Uncle Tony and Aunt To-To.
Their children are the First Cousins, the 10th generation: Eldest First Cousin is Lennie Hensgens and the Youngest First Cousin is Joey Gauthreaux for a total of 38 first cousins!
Total Family of Joseph and Anna Gertrude Reiners-Hensgens family members to date ~ 373
Number of Deceased Members ~ 33 (1909-2006)
Number of Direct Descendants ~ …tracking from Conrad and Gertrud Hockhaus-Hensgens, 1694 to the recent birth of a daughter’ Grace Kathryn’ to Darrren and Julie Habetz!
The ‘Greater Hensgens Family Information Sheet’ lists family members by name, email/snailmail addresses and a phone number. Contact your ‘Greater Hensgens Family Data Coordinator’ for a current copy post-reunion! Families of ‘Uncle Uchie’ ~ Sarah Hensgens-Harding, ‘Aunt Francis’ ~ Sr. Lawrence Habetz, O. Carm., ‘Aunt Gertrude’ ~ Bernadette Monlezun-Pontón, ‘Aunt Leona’ ~ Charlotte Berken-Conner, ‘Uncle Tony’ ~ Stephanie Hensgens-Berger or Anthony Hensgens and ‘Aunt To-To’ ~ Gwendolyn Gauthreaux-Sherburne.
Email Addresses ~ 81
Snailmail Addresses ~ 48
Cousins residing in states/country other than Louisiana ~ Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iraq, Michigan, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
Danke schoen for the delightful emails from the greater family as to your appreciation of my entire ‘Web of Gratefulnes’ as the gift to you and yours that it is! To quote a few…Yes, as Uncle Robert has said, ‘You just need time to click around which he does when he needs to ‘escape!!’ Yes, Gwendolyn I seem to be a ‘tad bit German’ especially in retirement!!! And, yes, Sr. Lawrence, ‘2009 will be a bit easier in data collections’ and yes, the descendants will have a lovin-lovin way of picking up the ball and running with their laptops when it is their turn!! Thank you for getting it, offered in total love and reverence and yes, please share it all with whomever you wish so that all may pray their families forward in this way in these times!!
2. Arthur Avenue is getting a spring- flowers- are- bloomin- look; shrubs are being planted and she will shine inside and out for the 22 April family and beyond! Silent Retreats with a major thrust in mailings will happen post-22 April 2007! And, visitors continue to call and retreat on many-a-Friday!! She couldn’t be a more living breathing retreat and respite place and yet she is. Thank Lee Joseph and Dominique Joseph for your stewardship of the mother ship, a rarity and sacred place indeed! And, thank you again for your arranging for Hectór and I to see Julio Iglesias and a lovely dinner with Dominique and Tina in appreciation of your ‘Caretaker’ tending Arthur Avenue for seven years now! That was first class on the fourth row!!! Julio’s smile is almost as beautiful as Hectór’s!!
3. The Olivetan Benedinctine Oblate ‘Spiritual Day’ is this month and I am heading north to Arkansas. I have been invited to dialogue with the Benedictine Oblate director as per their Oblate website and my Silent Retreat Series information that could be linked to Benedictines/Oblates programs which are vibrant the world over. What an opportunity to teach and never leave Spring Street or Arthur Avenue until my trek to the monastery!!
4. We are moving Antoine’s contents from Monroe, LA to his condo in Raleigh, NC soon via U-Haul truck and flying home! Hectór did this U-Haul thing post-wedding from LC to Fort Bragg, NC in 1978, one hour from Antoine today, but the TOTAL column was different!!
5. My Medical Resource Book is being taught throughout the CHRISTUS Health corporate entities and I am a bit involved in her teaching, sharing, thinking and marketing her to support groups far and wide! You never know what tracking information on paper will do!!!
6. O, you are invited to our Masterwork Chorale & combined choirs performance with the LC Symphony in Rosa Hart, Saturday 14 April 2007 at 8:00 p.m. We will nail Carl Orff’s ‘Carmina Burana’ sung in old Latin and German!! What a Lent of rehearsals!!
+Lastly, in between the above I have had a grand time re-organizing my home study for function (!)…have organized 48 Journals (1963 to present date!) and 97 Binders of Home, Families, Arthur Avenue, Enrichments/Life-long Learning, Careers, Our Wedding, Central and South America, photos, monasteries & Ministries, etc.! That is a total of 44 years of paper put into Binders; no more filing cabinets or files! I did Antoine’s last year!!! Mike Bussy crafted a beautiful binder case out of the Arthur Avenue pine to hold what is and yet to come! What a walk of memories! Can’t wait to share a Fact Sheet on ‘How to Order Your Binders NOW’ for my next retreat and to the Web of Gratefulness!
Auf Wiedersehen! Lead, Kindly Light!
35) Date: 1 September 2007
To: The Greater Hensgens/Monlezun Families, Friends and Strangers No Longer!
From: Anna Bernadette Monlezun-Pontón/’Happenings!’
+My! My! So much good all around…so many opportunities!
The Fourteenth Annual Germanfest October 6/ 7, 2007 will find your family/the Christian Joseph and Regina Tellers-Hensgens Family as the ‘Highlighted Germanfest Family” as well as the largest family of the original settlers! There is ongoing inputting into the ‘Hensgens Family Tree Maker’ names from 1694 to 2007 which could reach 14-15 generations from Christian and Gertrude Hockhaus-Hensgens to the youngest whittle-one that I can track! All these names will be on display in the ‘Hensgens Over-flow Tent’ and a Hensgens family display in the German Heritage Museum as well as my ‘Binders’ and those of the cousins connoting Genealogy/Data/History and so much more as we gratefully and humbly stand in the stead of our forebears! The Joseph and Anna Gertrude Reiners-Hensgens is the first family to go electronic with its own web link! The planning meetings at the Museum have been wonderful and a hoot to boot with a room full of Hensgens telling stories in remembrance. (Read Aunt Leona/To-To remembrances on my site under Hensgens History!!!) Sunday, 30 September 2007 Rusty Leonards will air on my diocesan television segment recounting the German lineage, St. Leo parish and Germanfest. We are in German costume and sing a ditty of “So Ein Tag” as the segment fades!!!
Footnote: I interviewed Ambrose Olinger, second cousin to Mom, on the Cove, early years, family remembrances; he then took me on a ‘tour’ of the Cove but especially to the original home site of my maternal great grandparents and grandparents by the pump by the White Oak woods! The interview will be, among others, on my website in the future!!
The tracking continues, in audio, brick-and- mortar, paper, photographs, video and website for families on both sides! Scanning all this information in a very concerted way is next!!!
+Arthur Avenue hosted Sr. Lawrence Habetz, O.Carm and the Carmelite Councilor Board 5-days/nights retreat and meeting; prayer, work and leisure was enjoyed by all present! (Hurricane Katrina obliterated the Order’s humble but wonderful MS beach house. O.Carm. are welcome the whole year long for retreat, rest, reading and bicycle riding to the park and Mass!!) So much so, they are booked for next year for the repeat place of grace, stillness, order and spirit in which to renew and plan for the future. That is exactly how I feel every Friday as I continue to tend in stewardship our flagship home of origin. “Reverend Mother’s Suite (Cell)’ upstairs (which embraced a real Reverend Mother!) is where I-Friday-read, write and plan for all good things. “The transformation up there is awesome” was exclaimed by Nique, Christian and Suzanne Louise! The future is an exciting place to embrace in gratefulness and awe with grit and determination not to mention an imagination for sojourning that can be fed by many rivers of thought! (Christmas Eve 2007 is on Santa’s calendar for Arthur Avenue and he will whip his reindeer into shape and arrive all the way from TUNew Orleans!! Hensgens family members welcome; I will just add water to the gumbo and a gift under the tree!!) A Silent Retreat with Cameron Parish folk and a sing-along of Lake Arthur-ites have been scheduled before years end…more later!!!
+‘Place-based Education: Connecting Classrooms and Communities’’ on Arthur Avenue for grammar-age students in parochial and public schools in the surrounding area is beginning to churn in my mind. Could-it-be… a field trip experience where in the Social Studies/History mode children would see and experience the home with artifacts/tent cards of identifications of the German and Basque influence in a family of faith, work and traditions encapsulating the migration from France, Germany, Roberts Cove to the Lake Arthur connection!! They in turn would be invited to find artifacts, photos, historical documents in their homes, write a paper of its origin and put up their own ‘Family Wall!’ Interviewing grandparents and parents would be encouraged as well as tracking their lineage! The experience could continue on my ‘Web of Gratefulness’ with links to explore and begin their own ‘Sayings’, ‘Remembrances’, ‘Happenings’ and let their imagination flow through their writing of what they have wondered through; I might put the ‘Lesson Plan Link’ and their papers up for all to win! Lemonade and zucher platzchens will be served afterwards on the swing porch!!! I could invite different guests from my television segment as lecturers on a myriad of topics…etc.
Footnote Again (!): All the ladies from the staff of the German Heritage Museum have been invited to spend time with lunch on Arthur Avenue post-Germanfest(!) taking in all that ‘she’ has to offer...the Hensgens meetings have revealed to me how much they love and miss my enthusiastic lovin- lovin Mom who so loved her people and the Cove!
…Must cease fire…work to do…see you in the Cove or around the Christmas tree!!!
How blessed we are to be but a humble link in a long but very strong ‘rosary’ if you will of family pilgrimage from old Europe to Louisiana and beyond! We have been prayed forward since 1694
through the thick and the thin!
LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT!
36) Date: 1 November 2007 ~ All Saints/All Souls Day!
TO: My Son, OSB/SNDdeN, Extended Family, Friends and Strangers- No- Longer!
(This is the latest edition of ‘Happenings’ that I send periodically about my tendings and doings! It is a link on my Web of Gratefulness www.leadkindlylight.net that tells of my little way of posting information since the death of my Mom in 2000! So many good things to do, to tend…the vineyard is a beautiful place, row by row! Enjoy the website especially ‘Sayings!’)
From: Anna Bernadette ~ Blessings from Spring Street on this beautiful and crisp fall day!
+The traditional Christmas Eve 2007 Fact Sheet will soon be sent for our extended family gathering on Arthur Avenue with one whittle surprise this year for the little ones and the big ones I suspect! One hint…it lights up as it takes a village!! Aunt Sharon is gearing up for the name-pull-email, the home is being prepared, Santa-with- blond-hair is busy in his Workshop-East and will be arriving on the front lawn of Arthur Avenue at 5:30 p.m. post-choral-hayride as all is once again being prepared on the Eve of the Birth of Christ who holds us all in the palm of His hand as we once again bend our knee and bow our heads in celebrating His salvific birth for humankind!
+Germanfest 2007 was an epiphany and cacophony of relatives and data! The Hensgens Family (Moms) was highlighted this year and since 1 January 2007, 3,201 Hensgens descendants = 965 marriages, 626 surnames in 16 generations have been inputted in my Greater Hensgens Family Tree Maker and this data was printed out on 575 sheets, secured to 16 tablecloths and displayed on 17 tables under the Hensgens Tent!!! The ‘Hensgens Family Chronicle’ on my website will be receiving more and more data over the next 100 years (!) and will continue to be a click away for all descendants!! The Mass was served by members of the Greater Hensgens Family and before I read the ‘Prayers of the Faithful’, I looked out over the crowd, straight up the middle with the approaching celebrants, honor guard of cousins home from the wars, Uncle Hectór’s smile, music from the German Folk Singers choir to the graveyard with the German and American flags flying and in gratefulness whispered a prayer of thanksgiving for the grit of my ancestors’ living their faith, understanding that labor is noble and that the land yields more than we’ll ever know! I’m gleefully involved with the most organized and dedicated people inputting the entire photo sections in the German Heritage Museum in Roberts Cove (have 175 Hensgens/Reiners photos to date) and scanning German family papers of the 41 original families into my and their website for all generations forever! Wonderfully have begun video-on-tripod interviewing Moms cousins/nieces/nephews, there are 70 first cousins just on the Hensgens side (!) which will also be just a click away!! Their stories are priceless of the early years ~ faith & traditional rituals centered around St. Leo’s, family, labor and barn dancing every weekend!! What a privilege to track our heritage ~ as the Museum staff and volunteers are a-comin to Arthur Avenue for a Visit, Food and Showing of ‘Moms and Dads Collection’ of 47-plus years of artifacts, memorabilia, photos, and Binders filled with family history, genealogy data, reunions, trips to Germany and so much more!! Ms. Renee has and continues to spend untold hours on this and other family and my ministry projects! She generously gives of her time, talent and treasure and asks nothing in return … she simply loves! Her parents’ home in Grand Chenier is nearing completion post-Rita and it is a glorious home for them to tend all on our beloved Ridge!
+ 17 November 2007 is Oblation Day in Jonesboro, Arkansas for myself and Ms. Renee as we become Benedictines Oblates in concert with Holy Angels Convent! We are concluding our Novice Year of Study; I am offering this Oblation and apostolic work in gratitude to my husband and son, in memory and gratitude to Mom and Dad, Alvin and Veronica, Srs. Yvonne Lerner and Evangelista Myers, OSB/Teacher/RIP! Now, I can get to work!! The first meeting of the newly organized Diocesan Office of Communications Advisory Board meeting is next month; dinner and our commissioning service at the Bishop’s residence was special and catapulting. I’ils Sont Parti!! (Uncle Dominique was recently commissioned as a Eucharistic Minister and in sitting behind him I thought how proud I am of him and all that he does for our family but especially for his God… like Dad we’ll never know how much!)
+ Cousin Anne Fautt and Mrs. Mazie Gaithe-Marceaux, mother of the author Steve Marceaux/”All God’s Gifts” and I enjoyed a wonderful day in Baldwin, LA visiting with our cousin Lillian Gaithe-Longmon who at 93 is really quite a trip and a gracious hostess! Her husband was mayor for decades and they traveled the world over! We dined at table for lunch and she kept exclaiming how wonderful it was to be with her people from Lake Arthur smiling looking just like Grandma Monlezun and Sr. Marquerite Gaithe, CCVI her sister! I told her that her Mama’s (Aunt Telesia Broussare-Gaithe) old white chair sits next to the coffee pot on Arthur Avenue and she was delighted to hear that it is still getting used! (Mike Bussy shored it up abit!) Anne said that it is the chair that Aunt Telesia sat in to sip her coffee in the kitchen right next door all the days of her life!! My! My! My! What goes around comes around! Cousin Lillian has that placid and peaceful look just like her sister, my Grandmother Victoria Broussard-Monlezun who died at age104!
+My sister Constance, Cousin Alberta Gertrude Hensgens-Lyons and friends sat at table with Fr. Donald Pelous in Henderson recently for our annual visit and catch-up time! What a hoot of a group! I want him to again bless Hectór and I on our 30th wedding anniversary in January at his St. Rita church in Catahoula, LA as he gave us our marriage blessing on that fateful day in L.C./1978! Alberta invited us to attend the All Souls Mass in Mowata, LA visiting the gravesites afterward…you should have seen the people! She played the organ, the music was heavenly as Nick/Raymond Hensgens/Uncle Hectór were just a singing away. On to her home with her family/extended present for food and conversation; this is an Uncle Uchie/Roberts Cove families annual tradition and it is lovely and meaningful. (O, there are Mexican Beach rocks in front of Mom/Dad/A/V/Grandpa/ma Monlezun & Uncle Alvin’s graves that were cleaned, have fresh fall silks and are a-glowin waiting for our choral hayride and Silent Night!)
+Suzanne Louise talked to her Aunt Bette of Grandparents Day at Our Lady Immaculate School and to please attend as I do annually since Mom died. Antoine was flying from New Orleans to Raleigh that day and having roused him early from slumber (!), we journeyed to the school Mass and classroom visit!! She couldn’t tell us enough about her work and introducing us to her friends. While she jumped all over Antoine (!), her teacher told us that she is the most compassionate child that she has ever taught! She cares and tends others with the biggest of smiles! I couldn’t throw the football with the boys this year as they always remember the ‘Kool- Football- Grandmother’ but there is always next year!
+ There was a mighty sing-along on Arthur Avenue recently with 10 Lake Arthur musicians and singers, a total of 27 happy people in attendance. The kitchen was full of sound, guitars, equipment, mikes, speakers, spoons, chairs, food, punch and songbooks; Mr. LaPoint played from Constance’s selection of harmonicas for every song! We sang the oldie medleys along with Danny Boy but Mike Bussy’s ‘Holly Beach’ ditty was the best of show and text!! They’re booked for April 2008 for a repeat performance! The home smiled on all in delight with life! Their stories of remembrances of Mom and Dad as they toured the home was priceless!! I could hardly get to sleep that night as I kept swinging to the sounds!
+ Cousin Alberta extended an invitation and it was accepted to attend a special school Mass at St. Michael’s in Crowley as a statue of the Infant Jesus of Prague was to be blessed
and dedicated to Cousin Wilma Hensgens-Leonards in gratefulness for her faith and dedication to that school during her lifetime. Cousin Lennie Hensgens boarded there and a non-stop progression of Uncle Uchie and Aunt Lizzie descendants have attended down through the many years. Isn’t that special and pure grace!
+ There are three Silent Retreats booked on Arthur Avenue between now and Christmas. Cameron Parish folk have and will attend 2 of them; upon walking into the home they speak of the smell that reminds them of their grandma’s house as the artifacts, baby shoes, Daddy’s chair that thrills them as they had the same before Rita! They love the ‘Family Walls’ and their smiles with heads bent to the side are a treasure to behold as they remember and tell of what was treasures in their ‘homes’ which are no more and are so grateful and happy that we have what we have and especially sharing it in silence, prayer and teachings! They particularly love our baby crib, high chair, playpen upstairs, the big table, the early stuff that held us all! God bless and keep them all! Many of them are our people.
+ I have booked on Arthur Avenue for April 2009 a Miller/Broussard Family Reunion!! More later…once we get the Reiners in we will have joined the 4 families under one roof! That is just too wonderful and enriching.
I must run! I have a few details to attend!!! May the Good Lord bless and keep you all the days of your lives. LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT! (Antoine, keep your head on a swivel in New York this weekend and try to attend Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral! Bring me a bulletin!!!)
37. Date: 9 December 2007, Second Sunday in Advent!
To: The Greater Monlezun Family
Re: Christmas Eve on Arthur Avenue, Monday 24 December 2007!
In gratitude we gather for this annual tradition, begun decades ago by Mom and Dad and, continue by the opening of our home of origin as well as our hearts, especially for the little ones and the newest members of the greater family! We are humbled to have the opportunity to celebrate together the Eve of the incarnation of the Word of God made flesh. This is the home where we were made flesh, formed and as part of the ancestral team of foremothers and forefathers, pass it on in gleeful gathering, song, prayer, food, choral hayride, gift exchange and swapping stories at Arthur Avenue on Christmas Eve! As MawMaw would say, “Come if you can!”
+Food/Beverages: Bring finger foods to serve on the buffet and your beverages. Boneless and skinless chicken and sausage gumbo (!), rice and potato salad will once again be delivered by noon ready-to-eat!
+3:00 p.m. ~ Choral Hayride! (Guitars always welcomed)! And, I'm trying to line-up a surprise!
+Santa Claus arrives by 5:15 p.m. if the North Pole weather is clear and all letter orders have been filled by those busy little Tulane-elves!! (Requested new time as some must be in their choir stalls for Mass!!)
Thank you Uncles Lee Joseph, Jr. and Dominique Joseph for home and the old red hayride Ford (!), Aunt Sharon for organizing the Christmas name-pull, ‘Santa Claus’ as ‘he/she’ on rotation practice their “Ho-Ho-Ho!” (Christian, next year!!), Robert Dale Istre for preparing/delivery/pick-up of gumbo and fixins, Ricky Berken for the clean yard and Ms. Renee for the display of the beautiful and festive snow village in the back room (but don’t tell the whittle ones yet!)! The graves at the cemetery have three sets of Christmas flowers and are lined with new stone to honor our memories. The paper products are out, Christmas tree is up and ready for decorating as the ornaments will be available for you and your children to place on the tree upon your arrival; the Christmas decorations now reside in the storeroom in their new red and green containers! And, on December 27, 2007 MawMaw’s 86th birthday, ‘I put it all back!'/a 'Young Adult' Silent Retreat is scheduled for January 2008!!’
Notations: +There are Christmas Eve/Midnight Masses that are listed for your scheduling purposes with family members a-singin in the choirs in #2 & 3!! 1) ‘MawMaws’ choir’ a-singin up a storm in Lake Arthur, 2) Our Lady of Seven Dolors in Welsh, I think 7:00 p.m. (ask Aunt Tina!), as well as, 3) ‘Our Lady Queen of Heaven Midnight Mass’ in Lake Charles beginning with a Concert of Carols at 11 p.m.!
+27 people from Cameron Parish have attended Silent Retreats on Arthur Avenue in the last 3 months and one lady said, “thank you for having this home for us and sharing the way we were raised. I can’t hear enough about the good old ways that mean so much more now since the storm. O, and I love the stroller on the front porch and the cloth napkins!!”
Wise ones still seek Him for He Leads O so Steadily! Blessed Advent and Christmas Season!