Two Years

It's already two years since my Mum passed away, on January 3, 2009. I remember that day as if it happened today. The day before my brother called and told me she was put into intensive care unit in the hospital she knew too well already for the past years of her battle with numerous illnesses... It was Friday. Then on Saturday I said Mass for her and drove to Butiama, some 13 kilometers from Kiabakari to see the parish priest of Butiama...


While in Butiama rectory, my mobile phone rang. I saw my Brothers name on the display. And instantly I knew why he was calling me. I did not want to pick it up, the moment lasting like an eternity... He told me in calm, but emotionally charged voice, that she had just passed away... It was 11.15am in Tanzania...

I turned to Father Andrzej and told him that my Mum had just died.

He looked at me in disbelief and after the initial shock, volunteered to make arrangements for the requiem Mass for my Mum in Kiabakari on Monday, January 5th, 2009, calling everyone and asking to come. I am immensely grateful to him for doing so and fulfilling this grim task expertly, making sure everyone gets the news in due time...

I thanked him for the coffee and took off back to Kiabakari to inform the leaders and catechists and start preparations for my travel to Poland for funeral and before that - for the the Requiem Mass on Monday, before I flew from Musoma to Dar es Salaam and then to Poland...

I felt as hanged up between two realities - eternity and earthly life... I was talking, reacting, but as if someone else was doing this, as I was somewhere else in fact...

Today I have the same feeling once again as I go to church to celebrate the memorial Mass for my Mum with the parochial community... Please, join me in your kind prayers for my Mother - Maria Halina Jakubiec, especially today. May she be happy in heaven and keep her watchful maternal eye on us as we continue with our struggle to press ahead towards the Father's House in heaven...