We met at St. Thomas Aquinas for Wednesday Summer Evening Healings
She, a wise elder, a genteel countenance, a soothing soul, so sweet to behold,
She breathed pauses as her words floated on emmmmm hmmmmm’s

We shared a lazy summer afternoon at her house reminiscing
Her only daughter ~ Mary Anne ~ had recently disappeared in Florida
Elsie had hired a P.I. to find her
Eventually the body was found
Elsie and her husband forgave and accepted God’s Will

On this day we sipped iced tea and went back to the beginning . . .

Elsie Ruth Mc Ginnes, was born many moons ago in Chestertown, Maryland
She was the second of four children ~ in a boy girl boy girl pattern
Ghost stories told of a headless rider who hung out under the town bridge

Elsie smiled ~ as her eyes clouded over in a far away gaze
She breathed a long emmmmm hmmmmm and rhythmically continued . . .
“You know dear, Chester River runs through the township of Chestertown.”

She paused, closed her eyes for a bit and added, “History was one of my 
favorite subjects. Math was so much harder. Mother was a school teacher,
she got me through Mathematics.”

She quietly smiled as we both sipped our tea. She took some time to digest
her past and bring in more stories; “I grew up on a farm with only 10
students in my class. The half hour of athletics each day was such fun!”

I asked her if she had to walk a great distance to school,
She smiled fondly as she remember, “Daddy had to take us to school
everyday. We had an old Ford car and an old Ford truck.”

Proudly she said, “We grew up in Queen Anne’s County. We met Princess
Anne once and I was one of the fortunate ones to shake her hand.”

I asked about her husband Emil. Story goes . . . she met Emil through 
Father O’Lonney, who convincingly brogued it to her,
“Elsie, I gotta a man for ya ~ he’s got a gift for fixin’!”
They were married in Old St. Mary’s Church 58 years ago . . .

After a long pause she ended our Memory Lane chat with a wry smile and a 
twinklin’ in her eyes . . . “Ah, Daddy, he’d give you the shirt off his back!”