A Christmas Wish

I received an actual, real paper Christmas card (see below) in today's mail from Fr. Hattie! See my Father Hattie page for more information on how you can contribute to help "his" orphans in Nsumba, Uganda.

Art: Albert Cozzi
"By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high
will break upon us...to guide our feet into the way of peace"
Luke 1:78-79 [NRSV] {Caption on inside cover of the card}

Inside card [calligraphy by David Mekelburg]:
My dear Rick:  Peace of Christ!
May the joy and peace of this holy season brighten
all the days of your New Year.
Fr, Gene, SJ

Enclosed with the card was a photograph with a caption on the back (see below).

Caption on the back of the photograph (see above)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Link:

http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/p/letters-from-fr-hattie.html

Written Sunday 21 December 2014

His & Her Blessings

I received the letter shown below from Fr. Gene Hattie via email on Tuesday December 2, 2014. My sister, ML, asked me about the meaning of Father's trademark "His & Her" closing line. I always assumed he was trying to refer to God in an inclusive way. I was surprised to find out that.....

"Letter" from Fr. Gene Hattie sent/received Tuesday December 2, 2014.

See my Father Hattie page for more information on how to communicate with Father and how to donate to help his orphans in Nsumba, Uganda.

Below is my transcription of the letter. I have taken the liberty of colorizing the background to simulate the Aerogram letters he used to send when he was in Uganda. I also have "corrected" any typos or light keystrokes. Otherwise I have tried to remain faithful to the text/meaning of the original letter.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My dear Rick:      Peace of Christ!

     I might just begin by answering your question about the meaning of His & Her. By that I am referring to Our Lord and Our Lady. I stay away from the 'gender inclusiveness of God', for it engenders too much controversy.  And, I deal with too much controversy as it is.

    Secondly, I wish to thank you most sincerely for your latest lovely & generous Gift of $xXx.xx. Sister said that you thought that one of your Cheques never reached. I would suggest that, from now on, you send them (and maybe you do) to P.O. Box 88634, Indianapolis, IN 46208. That would seem to be safer. They had to move and maybe you sent the Cheque to the old number.

     When I left Africa, I was "abandoned', as it were, by about 100 donors, under the mistaken thought that I no longer had any connection with the orphans. How wrong they were! They don't know that I am the sole provider for the kids, and feeding, educating, clothing & medicating 1000 kids, as you well know, is NO joke. So, this year I am sending all of them a Christmas Card, a picture of some of the orphans and a Homily by the present Pope about our obligation to care for orphans & street kids. So, down on those chubby knees and beg the Lord for a BIG miracle! I'll keep you posted.

Nothing much happens around here, but I am up to my neck getting out 150 Christmas Cards, so there is very little time to Loaf.

     Please wish your wonderful Mom a holy & Merry Christmas and a Happy & meaningful New Year for me.

     Be sure that you have a super-special remembrance in my daily Mass & prayers & in those of the Sisters & kids. Because of your thoughtfulness, the kids' Christmas will be a much happier one. In the meantime, keep smiling & spreading His & Her love, peace and joy all over West Hartford & afar.

Tons of  gratitude & love,                                 

Fr. Gene, SJ                                       

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Links:

http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/p/letters-from-fr-hattie.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogram
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda

Written Saturday 12/06/2014

Thanksgiving...CRASH!

It was a calm, peaceful morning. I was in my living room leisurely doing my Bible study (Joel) and sipping on a cup of strong coffee. Ahhhh....

SUDDENLY there was a tremendous CLAP!! Wow. What was that? It sounded like someone had slammed a metal lid on a large industrial-sized trash container. Stupid people I thought, and went back to my reading. (It didn't occur to me that commercial trash containers now use plastic tops.)

Then came the sirens. First it was one, short and nearby. Then a growing cascade of others mourning increasingly louder as they approached. When they abruptly trailed off like someone choked them, I knew something was going on nearby.

Urgently, I pulled on some clothes and grabbed my camera, phone, keys and headed out. When I reached the front door, I encountered a street full of emergency vehicles: police cars, fire truck, ambulance, and a gray car missing its front end and pointing in the wrong direction.

The crash scene from the front door of my building.

A closer view from the walkway of my building.

I was relieved and rather surprised to see that the driver appeared to have survived, She seemed to be in pretty solid shape considering she had just driven her car  at (40 mph (at least) into a pole. The air bags and the seat belt kept her in the car. She was sitting up in the driver's seat, half out of the car. The police and fireman milled about rather casually I thought. The EMTs dived in and went to work. One policeman was taking pictures of the scene. I consciously tried not to get in the way and out of any pictures. Meanwhile, I tried to snap a few shots of my own.

The engineer in me began to evaluate the scene. The car obviously failed to maneuver the bend in the road. Tire tracks in the snow, about a foot or less from the street, led right to the utility pole. There were no skid marks. It appears that the passenger side of the car hit the pole dead on. The pole didn't yield but the front end of the car shattered all over our front yard.  The shock of hitting the pole caused the car to arc about 230 degrees so that it was almost facing the opposite direction. Thankfully, no other vehicles were involved.

The pole held but is severely cracked.

A gap of ~3 inches from the force of the impact.

Several people I chatted with later assumed that the driver must have been on the phone or texting (an unfortunate testament to the effective propaganda campaign against cell phones). Perhaps...but maybe not. The accident also could have been due to excessive speed which caused the driver to fail to navigate the curve. There are no warning signs that a sharp curve exists (see picture below). Another factor is that the road is a tight four lanes without much room for error. I hope the young lady will survive to remember this day and count her blessings every day from now on. Thanksgiving indeed.

A tight curve. The winning pole is at the left.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE:

The day after the accident, the pole was "repaired" (see pictures below). I don't know if this is a "permanent" repair or merely "temporary" until the warmer season comes around again.

Repaired (12/07/2014)

Repaired-opposite side (12/07/2014)

The "fix" consists of a supporting board on the cracked side of the pole (see picture at left-above). The board is secured to the pole via four (4) bolts all the way through the pole; the damaged shields for the power cables and ground wires were patched with a green plastic sheet (see picture at right-above).

View approaching pole (12/07/2014)

This picture (above) gives a better perspective of what a driver sees at the start of the curve. With snow (as of the day of the accident), the edge of the road would not be as apparent as this picture indicates.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Written Th 27 November 2014
Updated Sun 7 December 2014 for pictures & text of repairs.