Newspaper Page Text
Thursday, May 3, 2001
The Southern Cross, Page 5
Everyday Graces
A lost watch and a lesson of love
rhen I
was in
my early
twenties, I
attended
graduate
school in
London,
England. The
program,
Mary Hood Hart conducted
through an American university,
consisted of an academic term in
London followed by a summer in
Oxford.
Before I left to go abroad, my
mother gave me a departure gift.
She took me aside a few days
before I was to leave, and she pre
sented me a gold watch her father
had given her when she graduated
college. This gift, while valuable in
its own right, had a great deal of
sentimental value. My mother’s
father died suddenly of a heart
attack not long after she graduated
from college.
My mother had been very close
to her father, and his sudden death
must have been extremely difficult
for her. Yet in speaking of him to
her own children, Mother never
dwelt on his death but on the way
he lived, especially his generosity
and compassion in his role as the
only doctor in a small Southern
mill town. When my mother gave
me her watch, I understood how
precious it was, and I was deeply
touched. I expected someday to
pass the watch on to one of my
own children.
After I lost the watch, my mother gave me
something far more precious, more
meaningful than the watch itself She gave
me forgiveness and unconditional love.
However, shortly after arriving in
London, I lost the watch, and it was
never recovered.
With some of my fellow students,
I attended a party hosted by one of
our professors. We had a few
drinks at the party and left just in
time to catch the last train on the
“tube,” a nickname for London’s
underground rail system. Because it
was late on a weeknight, the rail
car was practically empty. As I
recall, only my friends and I were
in the car.
As we were riding home, the
clasp on my watchband opened,
and without my being aware of it,
the watch slipped off my wrist. It
was only the next morning I dis
covered what had happened. While
I wasn’t completely to blame for
losing the watch, I was careless. I
had known the clasp was loose and
should not have been wearing the
watch until it was fixed. Perhaps,
too, if I had not been drinking I
would’ve been more alert and
noticed the moment the watch
slipped off.
The next day, I called the lost and
found department of the rail sys
tem. I was told I’d need to come in
and fill out a report. I took the train
to the rail system headquarters and
601 E. Liberty Street
Savannah, GA 31401
Letters
In appreciation
Dear Editor:
The National Religious Retire
ment Fund is deeply grateful for the
generosity of the people of the Dio
cese of Savannah for their generosi
ty in contributing to the care of sen
ior religious. We religious are hum
bled by the love and respect for the
lives and service of our senior reli
gious that is evidenced by such gen
erosity. The contribution of
$97,233.88 from Appeal XIII for
2000, will be of great assistance in
funding the well-deserved care of
our 52,000 senior religious.
The support made possible by the
generosity of the donors is a great
consolation for retired religious. It
gives them peace of mind when
they see their religious institutes
able to continue to carry out the
FAX: (912) 201^4101
E-mail:
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mission entrusted to them.
May our loving God bless you for
your generosity!
Sister Andree Fries, CPPS
Executive Director
National Religious Retirement
Office
Washington
* * *
Dear Editor:
I wanted to thank you and Rita
DeLorme for the lovely article,
“Georgia on Its Mind...” (April 5)
explaining our role in mission areas
which help us so deeply. I am truly
grateful.
Carrie Swearingen
Director of Communications
Catholic Church Extension
Society
Chicago
filled out the necessary forms. At
the time, I reported the lost watch,
no one had turned it in.
I can only surmise that someone
discovered the watch, perhaps
while cleaning the train after its
final run that night, and decided to
keep it.
Losing the watch made me heart
sick. Gathering the courage to tell
my mother about it seemed nearly
impossible. Because there was so
much distance between us, I post
poned telling her, hoping the watch
would eventually be recovered.
Finally, I ran out of hope I’d ever
see the watch again, and I mustered
the courage to write my mother and
tell her about losing it.
Because I wasn’t there when she
read the letter, I have no idea what
my mother’s initial reaction was. I
can only share with you how she
reacted when I finally spoke with
her personally about the loss.
She never made me feel guilty.
She never grilled me on the details
surrounding the night the watch
was lost. When I finally spoke with
her about it in person, she was very
understanding. To this day, 20
years later, my mother has never
once suggested to me she holds any
hard feelings about my losing such
a special watch only weeks after
she presented it to me.
A mother myself, I realize how
hard it must have been for her not
to dwell on the loss of this special
gift. When I give my children far
less valuable gifts, I have become
upset if they treat these gifts care
lessly. I sometimes follow up on
gifts, asking if they’re being used,
sometimes inducing guilt in them if
my children aren’t responding to
the gift as I think they should. Un
fortunately, gifts from me have too
often come with strings attached.
The day she gave me the gold
watch, my mother offered me
something of great value, from her
heart, and I will never forget the
significance of that gift passed on
from her father to my mother and
then to me. But after I lost the
watch, she gave me something far
more precious, more meaningful
than the watch itself. She gave me
forgiveness and unconditional love,
passed on from our Father, through
my mother, to me. It is that gift I
must pass on to my own children.
Mary Hood Hart lives with her
husband and four children in
Sunset Beach, N.C.
Dominican
New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts,
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