Wednesday 7th March

Today is the birthday of a woman called Felicity MacDermot who lives in Coolavin (Monasteraden) – we used to call her Madam MacDermot.  She lives in the home of The MacDermots, a family of historical significance and her late husband had the title “Prince of Coolavin”.  The family was and is Catholic and would have been very suportive of local people through the years.

Felicity was born on the feast day of St Felicty, hence the name.  She is proud of that connection.  The name, though not very common around home, is very important to her and she is happy it’s taken from a sainted and holy source.  I wish her a Happy Birthday though she certainly won’t be logging on to this or any other website or blog!  The internet would not be her thing.  Yet she has told me in the past that friends have printed different pieces for her – some from this blog even – and I know she has read and enjoyed them.   She has not been too well in recent weeks and, on her birthday, I remember her and pray for her peace of mind and heart.

I wish her well today and am reminded of a piece I wrote in our parish bulletin (Ballaghaderreen Parish) about seven years ago.  It was Father’s Day and I wrote a piece to and for my father.  It was sort of intended to make a point that we should acknowledge our fathers and the sacrifices they make for us.  I was saying, in the piece, that I found it difficult enough to find anything on the internet about Father’s Day and that quite likely a search for something for Mother’s Day would have been more fruitful.  I wrote a few lines to my father and said it was certainly not a very private way of acknowleding him – in a thousand copies of our parish bulletin – but that maybe it should’d be private.  If something is worth saying and needs to be said privacy does not always have to be “obeyed” and I hoped in my few lines that others might turn to their fathers too.

It was one of those bullein pieces that people commented upon.  The comments were favourable, not least from those who knew my father.  The most direct and memorable comment came from Felicity:

“That was lovely.  Bill is such a wonderful man.  You did the right thing.  Give them flowers while they still can smell them” ……

So then, on Felicity’s birthday and mindful that it’s moving towards the twelfth hour – God Bless You Felicity and mind you and thanks for the work you’ve done, the words you’ve spoken and the difference you’ve made.

The thought for today for all of us is look around, see those that matter and give them flowers while they still can smell them.

Amen!