Saying Farewell To Miriam
How do you say good-bye to a friend that you’ve seen almost every week for 14 years?
Our dear friend, Miriam, lives/works at the Marian Centre in downtown Edmonton and is a part of the Madonna House community which feeds and clothes the homeless.
They are moved from community to community, country to country every once in awhile, and even after all this time Miriam has received the call to return to the wonderful Combermere community in Ontario.
I remember when she finally got the book of her life story finally published and I totally enjoyed the read. Fascinating.
The Book Jacket : The spiritual journey of a Jewish Christian...
The struggle with a crippling disease...
A life-changing bonding with gulag survivors in post-Soviet Russia...
From Miriam:
"For twelve years I lived in northeastern Russia, in Magadan a city that was once the administrative center for the Kolyma gulag system. My presence as a Jewish Christian was not a coincidence. God had brought me to this place from France, from Combermere, and from my American childhood.
"Part of the mandate for our Madonna House foundation in Magadan was to atone for the evil perpetrated in the camps. In 1998, when I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, I realized that I too had something to offer. An unbreakable link had been forged between the meaning of my life and the lives that were sacrificed for no apparent purpose at all."
What an incredible person!
Miriam and I spent a lot of time together each ‘Ash Wednesday’ until Easter working on our pysanky ( Ukranian Eggs). We really enjoy our own conversations …ha ha…as we both have a tendency to talk to ourselves when painting a new egg.
Covid has kept me away from the Marian Centre for 2 years. Last year, the whole Madonna House ‘family’ got Covid ….and thanks be to God….survived. This year they invited Terry and I to come back and paint in their craft room ….and then of course WE got Covid before this could happen. We are really looking forward to setting up our easel stations again when we can now that we’re better.
We’ll miss Miriam SO much.
After visiting and hugging our good-byes, Terry and I headed over to Whyte Avenue to check out the new ice sculptures. Although the show opened the day before, there were very few finished sculptures and everything was behind a construction fence. I tried to take photos but….
I felt like a cuppa and Terry noticed that there was a coffee shop sign on the Fringe Theatre grounds so we carefully maneuvered down the icy alley until we found it.
What a great find! No one was there in the afternoon ( bad for them…good for us during Covid) so we ordered a cup of tea, chocolate chip cookie, and took one of the games off of a shelf and spent the rest of the afternoon playing Scrabble. What a restful, fun way to spend an afternoon! Unfortunately for me, Terry started off the whole game with a ‘bingo’ so I spent the entire game trying to catch up …to no avail. Well done, Terry.
Soon it will be pysanky time again and I hope to do a couple of new eggs. I’ll miss you, Miriam. God bless you always.