Uncle Luigi died today. He is my husband's uncle...and had just turned 97 years old last weekend. Luigi was in a nursing home in recent months after experiencing breathing problems and fatigue over the 4th of July weekend. Before this happened, Luigi was definitely the healthiest and most energetic 96 year old I had ever met. He barely spoke English and when he did speak, it was in Italian and had a lot to do with how great a country Italy is/was. I once took a photo of him on my cell phone saluting Mussolini during a family dinner. If Luigi was capable of taking care of himself as most adults do, I think he would have hightailed it back to Italy 30 years ago. Come to think of it, the first time I met Luigi and my husband's family was at a going away party when he WAS supposed to be moving back to Italy (32 years ago). That was Luigi; he was a man of few words (that I could understand) and many unrealized dreams...
Death has a funny way of yanking us back to reality, as it did today for my husband and I. You see, we were there visiting Luigi earlier today...and then went back as a priest was coming in to perform the last rights for Luigi at 5:30PM. When we arrived, the priest had just finished...and my husband's cousin and his wife were thanking him for coming. As he left the building, it soon became clear that Luigi might not be breathing. When it became clearer still, it so happened that Luigi may have died as soon as the priest finished administering the last rights to him.
I have to smile when I think of how God continually reminds us of His presence in our lives...when we stop to notice that is. Today, God revealed Himself as the consummate gentleman that He is; He knew and loved Luigi better than any of us here on earth...and He knew what Luigi needed to feel safe enough to leave us. Uncle Luigi needed God's assurance that he was going to go where he hoped to go after death. And by God's grace and mercy, he received that assurance this very day. Goodbye Uncle Luigi. Your time on earth was short in the light of eternity. Just make sure you don't give Michaelangelo too hard a time about how you could have done it better....
