Feast of All Souls

Pray For This Man Marcin Maciej
December 19, 1969 - December 28, 2003

Catholic Husband, Father & Scientist

When I met him, I thought he was a Catholic Fruitcake Egghead Pollack in need of a tan and some fashion advice. He just needed some of my edjamucation, American-style. I mean, he had been locked away living under a mushroom in an ex-Soviet central European Gulag.

Well, I was right on every count (except that last little bit about the Gulag stuff). But I fell deeply, madly in love anyway. I helped him get some sun and stop wearing black dress socks with shorts and tennis shoes.

He helped me see that there must be a Creator and that the Creator was none other than Jesus Christ who established the One True Catholic Church. I definitely got the better end of that deal. Although, I didn't do him any harm either. Look above at what our Southern food, sun and woman did for him.

He was a paradox.

He was a serious thinker -- the smartest person I've ever met -- and a lover of Christ. He had an innocence and purity to him that I just can't describe in words. Dostoyevsky's The Idiot captures some of the idea of his goodness, kindness, and innocence. But he could also get angry and scream scary curses in Polish that made me want to hide under something. He loved new foods, new experiences and meeting new people but could be painfully shy and suffered from social anxiety at inconvenient times. He loved big pickup trucks, big tools and big guns but he wasn't afraid to let little girls fix his hair. And he only used the guns on non-living targets. He just couldn't kill animals himself but saw nothing wrong with hunting and loved meat, like any red-blooded man.

I miss being able to discuss everything under the sun with this intelligent, funny, sweet man.

This is him at our dining room table probably laughing at me trying to pronounce Polish. He always got a kick out that. I mean, have any of you even tried to pronounce that language? Sheesh! Give me a break!

This is him a couple of hours after making a decent woman of me.

"What in the world have I done?! Man, keep those beers coming, would ya'?! Don't you have any kielbasa? Oh, well, I'll just stand here like a man in a JCPenney ad and hope no one notices that I'm the groom."

I'll leave you with my absolute favorite photo of Marcin. I took it when we were at our favorite destination, the lake, after he had been painted like a Brave by daughter #1.

Please pray for my wonderful hubby and all the
Poor Souls in Purgatory.
They cannot pray for themselves and
depend on our prayers.

The Somewhat Important Chapter

If you'd like to read some great writing from a young preteen writer about a very traumatic part of her life, go here. Please, leave her comments to encourage her budding talent.