ESTA ES SU CASA--MARCH 2010

ESTA ES SU CASA--MARCH 2010

The Obedience of Faith

I landed in Miami on Super Bowl weekend. But I kept going, on to St. Louis. I went in obedience to Pilar Harrison, who long before, in fact, ever since her husband Dean’s funeral in 1999, had called me to attend her passing as well. “You will speak for my funeral, too, Miguel.”

Pilar died January 27, but she had arranged her cremation, so the Mass and memorial service was unhurried, scheduled for February 13. This gave us time to plan a loving tribute to her life; anyone who knew her wanted to participate, from folks who knew her since the late 1960s when she first came to America from Barcelona, Spain, to marry Dean, all the way to little Katie Melching, 9 years old, who wanted to sing with her daddy Brian at the service for the “angel” who often brought supper for her handicapped mommy Angela.

Pilar was always doing for others, but she’d laugh when she’d answer the phone with her Catalan accent and some nosey caller would ask for “the lady of the house.” Pilar did not mind being taken for the maid, but it’s a mistake she never made herself, that is, prejudging others by appearances. She was always on the move, filled with the same Spirit that formed the cloistered Passionist nuns, contemplating Christ night and day. Pilar took their grocery order every week, way out to the convent at the west end of Manchester Road. The big congregation at her funeral was as varied as a random round-up at the U.N., yet we were all linked by our love for one particular person.

I excerpt my “eulogy” below, but I have to add one annotation. After I spoke, I kept hoping for a sign from Pilar that she forgave the embarrassing confession I made in the speech. On Ash Wednesday, Teresa Jorgen and I went looking for a fish fry. According to the newspaper, there was a fish fry at Incarnate Word Church, where we’d just had Pilar’s funeral a few days before. That would be a nice coincidence, we thought. We got there...and nothing. Some kids playing in the gym, another little after-school group in the cafeteria. What the heck? So Teresa said, Let’s go to Gulf Shores, a favorite spot of Pilar’s just up Olive Street Road.

As soon as we walk in, we hear a blues guitar and a big greeting, “Teresa! Miguel!” It was Brian Melching, Katie’s dad, who plays and records under the name Pennsylvania Slim, and he’d just started his set. OK, this was no coincidence! A gal who grew up under Francisco Franco’s dictatorship in Spain, diggin’ the blues--this was the sign I was waiting for. Nothin’ better than the blues to make you feel good about your hard times. As Teresa exclaimed, “Pilar loved Pennsylvania Slim!” While we ate our fish and chips, Brian dedicated every other song either to Pilar or Teresa or me, and none of the other customers seemed to mind. We got his latest CD and played it all the way home.

Pilar, I guess, planned everything but the weather. Frozen! I cleaned snow off the car--Pilar’s car! which I was “borrowing”--at least four times. What is the matter with you people?? How do you live like this?? I took pictures like some tourist from another planet, to show back in Honduras, where my daily phone calls reported hot, sunny days.

On the other hand, I was warmed up by good times with good friends, even when we were cleaning out Pilar’s condo, the stories we told, the memories we shared. But the friends I was most eager to see were the ones I hadn’t met yet--the babies! Little Jaslyn, born last October, the daughter of my nephew Jason and wife Sonja. Of course, if you wanna ooh and ahh this charmer, you gotta get a line ticket, there’s such a crowd! (Actually, speaking of tickets, Jason’s receiver coach at Illinois, Greg McMahon, is the special teams coach for the New Orleans Saints and invited Jason down to Miami for the Super Bowl. He couldn’t quite get Jason into the game, but he got him into THE PARTY!!)

Then I got to meet Ellie Florence, born in December, the daughter of Parkway North grad and St. Louis Symphony graphic designer Carol Stanton and her five-star chef husband Kirk Warner. (As Carol said, “I had NO trouble with my food cravings” during her pregnancy.) Ellie’s a cutie, already tempting a nickname like “Stringbean.” She cries a little, but maybe because she’s already a diva!

Way too early for a Cardinals game (though spring training is starting), I yielded to the meatloaf grandmaster Rams’ wisdom, who frowned at the prospect of my doing such a quick turn-around to come right back in April, and then disappear again till God knows when. “Why don’t you spread it around?” So she suggested I return later in September, in time for my October birthday--and maybe a World Series game.

And, indeed, I really must attend to business in Honduras. I spent 200 dollars on phone calls back “home” keeping track of Chemo. School finally started, a week late, and Chemo is cottoning up to his new teacher, Profe Vitelio. And he’s shepherding his 3 little nieces to class every day, for the first time really in their lives. So that’s working.

But the extracurricular activities were more disturbing. Every phone call, Chemo had another request, new shoes, new toys, new clothes, but the most persistent wish was for a new portable DVD player. “But you already have one,” I would say. (That was the big present I got him after his open-heart operation.) “No, it’s...scratched.” Pretty soon, I hear he’s sold it! For 300 Lempiras (about 15 bucks, when it cost ten times that). “No, I didn’t! Who told you?” That’s a story in itself. I called Cristian, the teen who got shot , pretty often, and most often Pablito and Chepito would be over at his house, so one day they’re hemming and hawing and beating around the bush till Cristian finally puts his sweet as pie little sister Mariela on the line, who tells me, with obvious prompts from the boys, “Chemo sold his--what’s it called?--‘portatil.’ Oh, and it’ my birthday.” Their deniability thus preserved, I could honestly tell Chemo, “they” (Chepito, Pablito, or Cristian) did not tell me.

But that’s not the point, Chemo! I talked to Dora, I talked to Natalia, Chemo’s grandma, who never leaves the house, but she was was so upset she crossed town to confront Chemo along with Dora. And Dora got it back, from Walter, a nice kid (I thought!), though the money question remained to be clarified. Chemo finally admitted his enterprising--though his monosyllables were a lot harder to decipher than Tiger Woods’ apology.

Other, even more bizarre stories kept circulating, but I had to dismiss these as fantasies. I couldn’t have Dora running down every rumor.

But even before I got back to Las Vegas, I had to bail out three Las Vegan teens in Tegucigalpa--Gerardo, Marvin, Olancho. Well, not really bail them out with cash; I sweet-talked them out of custody. The day I got back from the States, I invited them to Pizza Hut in the mall to celebrate Gerado’s 19th birthday. Gerardo is the brother of Cristian, the kid who got shot; also invited was Marvin, whose life Cristian saved by taking the bullet; and their mutual cousin Olancho. You know how malls are with teenagers now. Talk about profiling! I was already in the restaurant waiting for them with an order of Hut Wings when the manager, Roger, who’s been a pal for years since he was an eager-beaver waiter, comes running up to me. “They’ve been arrested!” (Even he knows these kids, from previous invites.) In a panic, we packed up the Hut Wings and I hurried off, with a floor-walker, to the security office on the roof. “They took them to the police station already,” I was informed. What, not Guantanamo?

I grabbed a cab to the station, which is right next to the hospital where Chemo got his heart operation, so I knew the area well. I expressed equal parts of dismay, shock, subservience, solicitude, understanding, and sternness, whatever worked. Eventually, I was ushered into the sergeant’s office. I explained that I come to the capital city once a month and invite friends from Las Vegas now living and working--I emphasized WORKING, that is, that they were responsible, not slackers--in Tegus. Then he called the boys in and sat them down and told me, eyeing them all the time, “Sir, you know, as a former teacher [we’d already discussed that] that you can recognize a bad student the first time you see them; I’ve got twenty years of experience as a police officer and I can tell you right now, these guys are not as pure as you think they are.” Nerves, I guess, but I came very close to what would have been a very inappropriate laugh when he said “pure” since “puro” is also the Spanish word for cigar. “They’re not the cigars you think they are.” In fact, they did look pretty scuzzy--well, they’d come straight from work! But I agreed with the voice of authority, meanwhile shushing Marvin, who was muttering under his breath about how unfair this all was. What I did not say was that, as a teacher, I had in fact dedicated my whole life to fighting prejudice, precisely, NOT to judge anyone by their appearance. But let him have his way--we got out of there and crossed the street to another, smaller mall, with its own Pizza Hut, and we opened up our Hut Wings (the waiter kindly provided a plate), ordered up a pizza and finished our evening in peace.

Back in Las Vegas now, I’m in my shirt sleeves, where the weather is alternating between baking heat (love it!) and breezy cool (you would call it summer). Chemo and his nieces have yet to all have class the same day, with this teacher out, then that teacher out, but I love our little ritual: Chemo gets up early and gets ready and we go over to his grandma Natalia’s, where the girls are staying till their mom and day, Alba and Santos, come back, probably not till April, from picking coffee, and we go off to school together, also his cousin Dionis, Natalia’s youngest, in fifth grade. The girls are Chila, 13, in second grade, Mirna, 11, and Reina, 9, both in second grade with Profe Flor. A hopeful start, though I saw “Why did you not do your HOMEWORK??” scrawled on Mirna’s notebook already. You gotta understand, Madam Teacher, these girls have practically no experience being in school. Give ‘em a break, OK? Of course, personal attention is at a premium, when you’ve got 40 kids in a classroom....

The transitions are so abrupt. At 6:00 in the morning, I’m handing off my big warm Cardinals jacket to Teresa Jorgen at Lambert Airport in St. Louis, and by noon I’m landing in Honduras, hot and dry and sunny. I tell you, going either way is not easy. It’s harder every time I leave Chemo behind, and it’s sheer torture to leave such dear friends and family in St. Louis.

One transition was even more final. The whole time I was in St. Louis, I wanted to visit Tom Thompson--”Don Tomas” to his thousands of students at Parkway East Junior High (as it was called) and Parkway North High. But it was very hard to catch him on a “good” day, because he was so sick. Still at home, in the loving hospice care of Patricia, easing Tom’s transition to his last despedida, or farewell, I finally got the chance the Thursday before I left town. He was alert, and profoundly thoughtful; all he wanted to talk about was Pilar, how good and wise and loving she was; indeed, how good she had made all the rest of us. I didn’t stay long. “I won’t see you again, Miguel,” he said, as we kissed good-bye. “I love you.” We both said that. Don Tomas died three days later, Sunday morning, February 21, just a week before his birthday.

So strange, isn’t it? Pilar had sent for me, after her death, but, in some mystery, she knew it was an invitation to see Don Tomas, too, before his passing. What St. Paul calls “the obedience of faith” is simply love. When we respond, even God falls into our lap.

Love, Miguel

EULOGY for PILAR VILARÓ HARRISON

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Incarnate Word Catholic Church

As much as Pilar loved Dean, she did not keep him to herself. I counted myself among their friends, but I did not realize how good was their love, how rich, how full, how all-embracing, until after Dean died. Some time later, Pilar gave me...Dean’s wedding ring.

But I lost it! You see, for several years, I wore the ring for any special occasion--Pilar’s birthday, Dean’s birthday, the anniversary of Dean’s death, their wedding anniversary, Easter, Christmas, New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving--anytime I knew that I would see Pilar. Suddenly, after a certain flurry of celebrations--putting the ring on, taking it off, putting it on--somehow, I misplaced it. Lost it!

I was miserable! I searched everywhere. I’m still convinced it’s somewhere in my old apartment on Delmar. I tore up at least a couple floor boards looking for it.

I bought a ring to replace Dean’s ring--and I never really had to tell Pilar, because shortly afterwards, I moved to Honduras. Yes! I ran away! But now, Pilar knows what a numbskull I am! I’m so sorry, Pilar! But maybe she forgives me.

This ring, even it it’s not “really” Dean’s ring, does I hope do Pilar and Dean some honor. This ring is my tribute to their love, a love that included all of us. Because love is never lost. So let us love one another, as Pilar loved Dean, that nearly, that dearly, that really.

Amen.