MARY ETHEL MATTINGLY KNOTT
September 10, 1917 - May 12, 1976
My mother died 49 years ago today. She died of breast cancer at a little over 58 years old. I was the second of her seven children, not counting a miscarriage. I was holding her hand when she died.
We were very close, mostly because we both almost died in her giving me birth. I was born at home, delivered by my paternal grandmother and baptized right there in the bed where I was born by this country midwife grandmother. We cried together when I was born. She cried every time I came home from the seminary. We cried together, walking back to the hotel, when the doctors in Dallas, Texas, told us she had breast cancer. She cried when I was ordained and said my first Mass. We both cried when I anointed her in our living room as she left for the hospital for the final time. I cried when she died, at her funeral Mass and when we left her body in the cemetery.
I always wanted to do something to memorialize her, but I could never afford it when she was alive. Forty-one years after her death, I got the chance. I was able to build a "prayer garden" at Saint Meinrad's Monte Cassino Shrine where I went to the seminary for six years and where I worked as a staff member for ten years. I included my brother, Mark, because I wanted to honor him as well. If you are ever at St. Meinrad, go up the hill to Monte Cassino and visit her "prayer garden" and say a prayer for her!
Mom, I Still Love You! May You Rest in Peace!
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