6/52

Feb. 8, Feast of St. Josephine Bakhita, a Sudanese girl of the 19th century, sold into slavery, brought to Italy, made a nanny, sent to the Canossian Sisters, freed and baptized.  She died after a long and painful illness, during which she would cry out to God: "Please loosen the chains . . . they are so heavy!"  Her dying words were, "Our Lady! Our Lady!"

"A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2014."

Afon:  on one of our morning strolls.

The other day, I realized he was saying, "Go.  Go."  So I asked him, "Go where?"  And he said (more or less), "For a walk."  So we did.  When we went downstairs, around the back of the building, crossed the parking lot, and started on the sidewalk, he got upset and took my hand and pulled me back to the car.  He made me get the stroller out of the trunk so that he could sit in it while I was the one walking!  A big change from only seven months ago, this past summer, when he had a hard time sitting still in the push-chair.