The Cycle of Life

Since we have been here, there have been three deaths that have affected us more or less directly (knowing the person or relatives, for example), three weddings, and three births.

The most recent death is terribly sad, and I wanted to tell you about how the town has mourned together. A local businessman who was very much in the forefront of the commercial community here ended up in tremendous debt (according to local gossip; I have no real information) and hanged himself in his shop just after lunch one day. He leaves his wife and two small (3 and 6) children.

We didn't know him personally, but we were very touched to see the collaboration among the shops inside and outside the walls. The death occurred on a Friday. Saturday morning, you could see in EVERY shop window (no exceptions) a printer-size piece of paper with a black ribbon and "Grazie Roberto" written on it. Saturday afternoon (a huge business day for everyone, particularly since we're at the end of the tourist season), all the shops closed to honor him. And Sunday, the day of the funeral, all activities were called off. The funeral was at Crocefisso (just outside the walls, and very near his shop), and it was absolutely swarming.

In the midst of this grief, I was heartened to see the coming together of the community. This has been such a tough time economically for this small city, and of course during stress, tensions can come into play. All of this was put aside in order to allow everyone to grieve together.

On a happier note, Florence, Jeremy, and I sang at a wedding on Sunday down at Consolazione. It was an absolutely charming affair, and rather different in a few ways from other weddings we've attended. To begin with, the church was still occupied by the earlier event (50th anniversary Mass) at 11:30, the time the wedding was supposed to begin. At 11:35, participants started pouring out of the church, and so others pushed their way in simultaneously (the choir included!).

At about 11:45, there were partially robed guest priests looking for the bathroom (to be found at the bar across the street...no water in the church), a singer warming up, the PA system being balanced, and just general mayhem.

At 11:55, something lovely happened: while to all appearances, nothing was going to happen anytime soon, our conductor told us to start the first hymn. Okay, then! We started up this cheerful hymn with the theme of the Wedding of Cana, and the entry doors were suddenly surrounded by guests, and the priest was at the doorway greeting the couple -- who walked inside arm in arm. The three of them walked up together.

Since it was a Sunday Mass, we had the regularly scheduled readings. The priest shooed off the photographers during his homily, stating that he and the couple had worked very hard to prepare for this homily, and that they were just being distracting (!!!). Good for him. The sweet thing? He was able to chew them out by name because of course he knew them all. Later, when he needed help handling everything (no altar servers, for some reason), he called another fellow up onto the altar to give him a hand... All in all, it was a very warm, loving, family-oriented wedding and we felt very fortunate to have had the chance to attend.

And babies? It's such fun to see "my" babies coming up or down the street and to snatch a cuddle!

Love,

Alexandra