I was a senior in college when me grandma died. She was 92, and up until her final illness she was full of life and spunk. Many of my favorite childhood memories were at her house, of her baking doughnuts, making vats of homemade applesauce, and playing cards with my numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins. She had raised thirteen children, nine of whom were rowdy boys, and through that had maintained a strong sense of humor and a deep faith life.
In her later years she had a wheelchair, but she didn’t use it as such. She would hold on to it to steady herself when she walked, and she would sit in it when she prayed. She called it her prayer chair, and throughout the day she sat there as she prayed her daily rosaries (never just one!). She was faithful to praying every day for her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and all those in need. Her devotion was beautiful.
On the day she died, we were all gathered by her hospital bed to say goodbye. Various of us grandchildren took turns wetting her dry lips with water on a small sponge. Looking at her small, frail body we all knew the end was near and we all wanted to be close to her until the end.
At some point, however, I felt a tug at my heart to go pray. She was at a Catholic hospital, St. Luke’s, and they had an adoration chapel on the main floor. So I went down to the chapel and knelt before the Blessed Sacrament, praying a rosary for the loving woman who had so often prayed for me.
When I returned to her room, I learned that she had died while I was away. Everyone else had been gathered around her, but I had missed the moment. Rather than feeling sad that I missed out, though, I was convicted that I had made a divine appointment. At the moment of my beloved grandma’s death, I had been before Jesus praying for her in her favorite way to pray. I was offering a rosary for her as she passed into eternal life. There was nothing better I could have been doing.
The rosary is a beautiful meditation on the life of Jesus, beginning at the moment when his coming is announced to Mary and leading to the moment when, after Jesus has ascended into Heaven he and his mother are reunited when she is assumed and welcomed fittingly into His Heavenly Kingdom. With the addition of the Luminous Mysteries, the rosary leads us throughout Jesus’s life, highlighting key moments. It also provides a simple and effective way to pray when we are at a loss for words. We beseech Our Lady’s intercession, as with her we come to her Son in trust and in hope.
I will always be grateful to my grandma for the many prayers she said for me over the years. I am inspired by her example of devotion and faithfulness, and though I am not (yet) the prayer warrior she was, I do aspire to follow her example and I will always treasure the memory of interceding for her in her last moments of this pilgrim journey.
Prose for the sake of Poetry 