TLC's GRAND OLD LADY DIES!

 Hello Everybody,

Yes, hello Everyone!

Well, this is not going to be such a cheerful story.

First of all, yesterday was Sunday, right? So, we thought because Mommy is sick and Pippa was away at GIBS, that we wouldn’t have to go to Mass. And actually, we were quite happy about that. Well, we were wrong. Because there came bossy old Zoë and commanded us all to hurry up with breakfast and get dressed neatly because we had to go to Mass! So, we were all begging and pleading, but she wouldn’t give up and we all just ended our grumbling, started getting dressed and got into the bus.

You know we are Catholics, right? And our church is in a TENT? That’s because we are still saving up money to buy bricks and cement. It’s taking long because most of the people in our church are very poor. The tent is so freezing in winter that smoke comes out of your mouth when you sing. And it is so hot in summer that people faint. Actually, a boy DID faint yesterday! It was so very hot. We were all praying, .. like this - ... Oh God please hurry up! Please make your priest hurry up! I’m going to die! Oh, God I’m going to die, it’s just too hot! And we were taking our clothes off bit by bit and stopped just before it was going to be rude! And some people, specially some men, were smelling bad from all the sweat.

I always have to sit right by the door and if I feel like I can’t breathe I have to go outside and take a few gasps. I can’t stay outside too long, because Mom and Pippa and Zoë are always watching me in case I go and play. As if I would go and play all by myself! Anyway, I do love God and I wouldn’t want to be disrespectful, but I have to breathe, right?

I don’t know why Mom can’t find us another church. Every time we complain she just says ... –Oh stop whining! All the Old Testament Saints went to church in tents. And THEY lived in the desert. Imagine how hot THAT was!-- ... Yes, well the Old Testament Saints didn’t HAVE nice churches in the desert ... We HAVE nice Catholic Churches here in Johannesburg ... only thing is ... the people in those churches don’t like our big family and always worry about maybe we are going to ask them for something ... like we are beggars or something  ... or if we are going to take up all their pews with our big family. Or maybe us being in their church will ruin their reputation. Or maybe it doesn’t make them look all rich and proper when WE go there.

And sometimes their kids are very mean to us ... they call us – Those AIDS kids – and we are not AIDS kids at all. No. We are just normal like everybody else. Maybe one or two of us are HIV Positive, but we are still normal, and nobody has AIDS. We’re not catchy or anything like that. It makes Mom MAD when they do that. And sometimes they look at us as if we are dirty and we’re not. Mom always dresses us like rich boys, because she says it’s important ... she says – Fine feathers make fine birds - So, she tries to buy us the very nicest clothes that she can afford. But even so, they call us orphans and we are not orphans. We have a Mom and a lovely family.

So, quite a long time ago .... maybe last of last year, Mom got very angry because that church did something very, very mean to our babies. She tried to forgive them, but Mom says its much easier to forgive people when they do something to HER than if they are mean to her children.  So then suddenly she said, ---THAT’S IT! Now we are leaving.--- She even went to the Priest and told him we were leaving. But she didn’t tell him why, because she said --- what’s the point. It’s over anyway. Bad words leave bad memories --- From there we went to Bosco because Bosco is run by the Salesians and they understand kids and teenagers.

But it wasn’t long after that, Bosco said their church was now too full for everybody and we had to leave and get our own parish, so they gave us a priest and a deacon and a few normal people and so we left. And now we are in a tent.

Mom does know that it’s too hot in summer and too cold in winter. But she says that doesn’t matter because our motley family is loved and accepted there and that is the most important thing. The whole community is kind to us. They always smile at us and welcome us when we arrive and the old ladies give us hugs. And even one day when Brett farted really loud in church by accident, the priest tried hard not to laugh and every now and then he would grin or giggle -- all Mass long. And an old man went up to Brett afterwards, shook his hand and said –‘Well done, lad!’ We laughed and laughed about that for months. Even Mommy. She thought it was so funny!

Oh, I remember Mom telling us this great story once, long, long ago, when we were still in that other church and we were complaining about how the kids did not like us and were mean to us. She said that once there was a very poor little boy who really longed to go to church with all his heart. And every Sunday he would sit on the steps of the church as the congregation went up the steps past him, and into church. He waited and waited, week after week, for somebody to invite him to go into the church with them. But nobody ever did.

And so Christmas came, and the bells were ringing out so jolly and he was sitting on the freezing steps because in America Christmas is so cold, not hot like here in South Africa. And he was shivering and hoping again that somebody would ask him to come along inside with them. But nobody did. So he sat outside and was very sad, listening to all the beautiful Christmas carols being sung and the lovely organ music playing.

Suddenly, it became quiet, and the little boy became so curious, he decided he was just going to go into the church all by himself. And so he did. As he walked down the aisle with his torn and grubby clothes, and his filthy hands, feet and face, everybody turned to look at him and they were disgusted because he stank so bad.

It was Christmas, so all the seats were full, full, full. He couldn’t even see one spot where his skinny little bum would fit. Then suddenly he looked up and saw that at the edge of all the beautiful choir ladies, was just one seat. So he rushed up there to those lovely ladies with their kind faces, all dressed in white and sat down on one of those soft, snow white chairs. Plomp! He sat, right down there with a big smile on his face.

But he heard everybody making shocked noises and then the choir man came running and said ...- Who does this little scruff belong to? - And nobody answered. And the choir man picked him up by his scrawny neck, carried him to the door and threw him out on the stairs.

Then the little boy cried so loud! He wailed and wailed and wailed. Till he heard some footsteps coming up the steps and a man who was dressed rather strangely came and sat next to him. The man put his arm around his skinny shoulders and said ..- Little boy, little boy, why are you crying? – and the little boy looked up into the man’s face and he asked “Who are you?” And the man answered, --I AM JESUS!-- Then the little boy started crying and wailing even more loudly. And Jesus said, -Little boy, what is the matter?- And the little boy said ... –YOU are the boss of this big church, right?  Well Sir, your servants won’t let me go in there!-- 

And Jesus looked at the little boy, smiled sadly and said ... “Oh, don’t cry, my son. They don’t let ME in there either!”

That means that if people in the church can’t love everybody the same, whoever comes in their church, then Jesus gets so sad, he sometimes has to leave. (I think)

No Kieran, that’s not what it means.

Well, what does it mean then?

I don’t know. But now it’s my turn with the real news.

When the bus came back from church, I was the first one off, and I ran to Postinia as fast as I could to make sure that Mommy was alright because we had to leave quickly in the morning and I never got to see her. While I was running I saw that somebody had dug a really big hole on the left hand side of the path, behind the fence and I wondered what they were going to do with it. But I didn’t stop to see because I wanted to see Mom.

Mom opened the door and gave me a big smile and a big hug and said “How’s my boy?” I told her somebody fainted in church and that it was terrible ... so very, very hot and smelly ... and the priest took so very long becauset four grown-ups had to get baptised and it took f-o-r-e-v-e-r. Mom said, come inside then, I’ll make you a nice cooldrink. So she did and we sat at the small table in her little kitchen and she had a very serious face and she said this:

Jesse, I have something very important to tell you. I don’t want you to get upset, and I need you to understand. I am not coming home today .... and I was like ....
W-H-A-T?  W-H-A-T?  Mom you SAID you were coming home today! Mom said, --I know Jesse but I need to stay here another two weeks. And I was like ...
W-H-A-T?   T-W-O   W-E-E-K-S?   NO MOM! WHAT’S WRONG, ARE YOU SICKER THAN BEFORE?

Mom said ... – No Jesse, I am getting better. But God asked me to spend two weeks with him so that I can find out what he wants me to do ... with myself, with our family, with TLC ... just with everything. The reason I get scared so much is because I don’t know where I am going anymore. I feel lost and I always think maybe I am going the wrong way. When I take these two weeks, I will not be scared anymore and I will be peaceful because I will know what God wants me to do. That will be good, won’t it Jesse?

T-W-O   W-E-E-K-S   MOM! THAT SUCKS! And I tried my best not to be a wusi and cry. I had to bite my lips. So I said goodbye quickly to Mom and said I must go. Mom said – You didn’t drink your cooldrink. And I said, I’m not thirsty anymore. And then I left.

I cried when I got outside. I cried all the way to the Garden of Remembrance and then I saw Kieran running up to come to see Mom as well. So I stopped him and I told him what she said. And he was shocked, weren’t you Kieran?

Yes, I was like ... W-H-A-T   T-H-E   H-E-C-K?  TWO WEEKS? But then Jesse said, -- it’s no use going to see her, Kieran. She’s made up her mind.-- And then I started to cry too, and we were just like walking in circles around each other kicking the sand, and crying. And then suddenly Jesse said, -- What’s wrong with Samurai? (he’s our pony) – and Samurai started neighing and running up and down and up and down the fence where the big hole was dug. So we ran quickly and had a look and when we looked into the hole, we both nearly fell in, because we got such a fright! Because there, lying on the bottom of this enormous hole was Maria. Maria! Quite dead!

Kieran said –Oh my God! Rhys has murdered Maria! Shall we go and tell Mom? And I said ... NO NO. Maybe she will get a stroke. And then we saw Ellen walking up pushing a baby in a pram and we said, Ellen, Maria is dead. And Ellen said Yes, I know. The vet put her down this morning. She had cancer all over her mouth and throat, so she couldn’t eat and she was dying anyway. There was that rotten word cancer again!

Ellen said, the vet said Maria was suffering terribly and she had a very long and wonderful life here at TLC. Not many horses get to be 35 years old. Then I asked Ellen – How old is that in human years – and Ellen said she didn’t know, and then she left with the baby. Jesse and I talked about it and we said we thought about 350 years. Yes, that’s very old. No wonder. Then we stood together, holding hands and we said a prayer for Maria. Maria who has always been at TLC ever since we could remember. She was always there ... just like the house, and the pump and Samurai and big oak trees and blue-gums. How will it be, now that she was gone?

Me and Jesse felt very sad.  Very, very sad. Mommy wasn’t coming home. And Maria was dead. It was a bad day. I put my arm around Jesse’s neck and he put his arm around mine. Together we walked home slowly and quietly and didn’t talk. We both cried quietly all the way home.  We didn't bother with lunch.  We went upstairs and laid on our beds and cried and cried for the rest of the afternoon.

Rest in Peace dear Maria.  We love You!

BUT LOOK!  THERE SHE IS .... HALLELUYAH! 

BYE MARIA.  ENJOY HEAVEN!

WAHOOO .... GO GIRL!  GO! 

SEE YOU WHEN YOU COME BACK WITH JESUS!