The Mail: Marilyn

In the age of online everything, some things have become relics of the past, like "real mail." In my real mail, I am mostly subjected to multiple airline credit card solicitations, the weekly mailer with grocery ads and fast food coupons, and once a month, the water bill. In COVID-19 days, I haven't even wanted to touch the mail. Why waste a good handwashing and sanitizing of the door handles for junk mail? This week, though, I received more than my share of surprises when I reached my hand inside the box. For the next few posts, I'd like to share a little bit about the person behind each of those packages or letters that helped me get through a few more days of social distancing.

There is nothing I love more than receiving a card in the mail. And oh, one that pops up with a bicycle inside! My friend Marilyn sent me this card out of the blue. She wrote:

Hey, Girlie! Just checking in - hoping things get back to "normal" soon and we can go for a bike ride or 4. Miss your smiling face and think of you often. Love, M.

I smiled, remembering fondly the 36-mile ride we did together a couple of summers ago—my very first long one. And I remembered the time we rode to the northeastern part of the county and stopped to get a beer at the halfway point, which nearly did me in on the way back. She needed the beer, though, after nearly riding over a snake, one of her greatest fears. The bike pop-up card was a perfect reminder of adventures in cycling and adventures in faith—and even an adventure to my hometown.

I first met Marilyn on Facebook, actually, around this time of year in 2014. I can't remember if I messaged her or if she messaged me, but at the time, she was going through the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults to become a Catholic. She asked me a lot of questions on Facebook Messenger about Catholicism that were easier for her to ask outside of her formal RCIA sessions. Why do we do this? What does this mean? Who are these saints? At the time, I was a campus minister at a nearby parish, so I happily obliged and cheered her on at every stage even though I barely knew her. We even shared a beer at the local watering hole after her first confession.

Rest stop during Pedal-with-Pete
June 6, 2015

Over time, we developed a friendship where I realized she was living the questions and the answers better than most cradle Catholics I knew, myself included. I have never met someone so hungry for understanding her faith, for wanting to know all there is to know. After translating complex theological concepts into images and metaphors a novice could grasp, I sometimes told her it didn't matter if you had the right answers or knew what the Annunciation was or could recite the prayer before meals without missing a word—what matters is love.

Marilyn's favorite part of the liturgy is the eucharist, an ultimate act of love, where we receive Christ's body and pray that we become what we receive. She used to cry every time she went to communion and as she watched others do the same. I couldn't help but think of her tonight as I watched a live stream of the Easter Vigil, her anniversary into the Church, and heard the third verse of Let Us Be Bread by Thomas Porter:

See how my people have nothing to eat.
Give them the bread that is you. 

Marilyn gives her bread (or famous pulled pork or flank steak) to others so that others might know love, might know God. Happy Anniversary, dear friend. I can't wait for that bike ride.