Friday, July 8, 2016
My Loving Sister Joanie, They say that distance separates those we love and as I have spent the better part of my life abroad it has never been easy to share each and every special moment in life together with you. What distance can never take away is the wonderful memories we shared together and the times spent in laughter and love. As my loving Sister, neither one person nor any distance can take away those special memories that I will forever keep in my heart. Those memories seem as real today as they were back then and for that I am very thankful. I now can share those memories with my own family so that they will remain alive in our hearts and above all time. Some of those memories I cherish most are the visits to the beach together at “Coney Island” where sun, sand and eating soggy sandwiches were the highlight of the day. The walks up to 5th Avenue in Brooklyn to visit “John’s” Discount Store where we shared time searching out some really “good finds” and sometimes, well, not so good but for those things we laughed about it together. The Christmas Day’s spent opening a hundred gifts with what seemed like a hundred children at our Mom and Dad’s house and where the gift wrap seemed to reach the ceiling after all the gifts were unwrapped. But my most fondest memory of all was the Sunday Dinner’s I spent with Mom and Day at your home and what seemed like an awfully long drive home at the end of the day. Where the day began with a visit to Mass at OLPH, a wonderful family dinner and then listening to Irish Music at the end of the evening with our Irish Mother is a memory that will remain in my heart for a lifetime. Mom loved for us all to sing together with her and it comforts me to know as you join our Mother in heaven today she will finally have someone to sing those Irish Ballads with. Yes, distance has kept us apart for many years except for the occasional call or short visit but the memories I have shared with you and the strength you showed me early on in my life will stay with me forever. Today, I ask God to comfort all of our family who miss you so very much and to heal all our pain at your leaving. I ask him to keep you smiling down at us each and every day as I will always be smiling back at you when I remember those cherished memories spent together. You will always be with me every day of my life as you are my loving Sister whom I love and miss very much and whose memories spent together will live within my heart forever . . . . . You Sister, Janie