Yesterday was so big I had to take some time to gather myself to write this post. So here I am today exhausted from a trip to the past and back again. Time travel takes a lot out of a person...let me tell ya. First things first!!! Cardinal Spellman and all of past volleyball teams gathered together to honor the coaching career and THIRTY years of dedication of a woman by the name of Ms. Faulkner. I thought just eating at a restaurant I've never been to was going to be my only new thing. I had no idea. This group of women shared bottles of wine and stories as we caught up for the first time all together since 1990. Our little table of seven was only one in a room full of people full of pride and gratitude for a role model, coach, friend, teacher and dean. Year by year we stood up and told stories of all that she gave to us and brought to us as students, athletes and women. We ate delicious food and showed pictures of kids, talked about our lives and learned all that can happen in twenty years. I thought I would enjoy myself...I had no idea how much! They were my girls back then and I have a feeling we will be something completely new to each other now.
Next it was off to see the famous Pelham Parkway house of crazy Christmas. You've seen it on those shows that highlight the best of decorating. It was over the top and slightly disturbing...but a sight to behold indeed!
Then two adults realized that it hadn't been since 1985 or so since they were in the old church. So we went to Mass at St. Frances of Rome. The 5:00 Mass. Time stood still in the building. Same banners were hanging. Same windows and lights. Same huge pipes over the organ. Same bells that a certain alter boy used to shake...all still there as if decades hadn't slipped by. The priest announced a special function being held in the auditorium right after the service. A priest that taught at my very high school that I had passed earlier in the day.
This is when a bit of Christmas magic was sprinkled in the crisp but lovely night air. We all walked through the doors and walked up the steps to our elementary school. I thought time had stopped in the church. I had no idea. John and I were transformed into the 6th graders that sang in the same metal folding chairs before the piano during the Christmas show. A tree was up and decorated. A community event was about to take place. It welcomed all. We looked around a room full of people...some of with faces we have known since childhood and marveled at the surreal feeling of the moment. After eating a collection of traditional food from around the world the lights dimmed for a Christmas story and a sing-along of Silent Night. I told you there was some Christmas magic. It all came swirling down around me as if it had waited in the stained glass windows above me for that very moment. Years and years of patience. The balcony held old piled up desks and sets from plays held years before. The curtain hid the stage as it always had. The same smells. Sounds. All there.
As if it wasn't all enough I looked over and instantly knew a face. She was older but I don't forget the eyes and smile of a girl I had played with for years. My neighbor from childhood. I bolted for her and as I said hello and she realized it was me...a tad few more sprinkles of the holiday dust fell from above. She no longer lived there but was visiting. We talked about our families and how we had moved away from the Bronx years ago. She mentioned that she moved to Pennsylvania...to East Stroudsburg. At this point I could take no more.
This school that I spent eight years of my childhood has since been closed down. It sits there in limbo with an occasional student for Catholic education or a church event. The school is one of my most cherished parts of childhood and until now I had feared to never again get to see the inside of it. To be able to take my own little children inside to feel it's cozy warmth was bittersweet. I looked across the table at a girl that was my age in the 4th grade and saw myself. Where oh where does the time go?
We took a detour through Manhattan on the way home. The trip seemed incomplete without a glimpse at the lights and windows that the city makes even more special at this time of year. As the skyline faded and the stars reappeared on the drive home...I lingered in disbelief of the day.
(They have the Christmas Around the World event each holiday season...I'm thinking a little reunion needs to be set up!!!!)
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