Any old Catholic will know March 19 is St Joseph's day... 2 days after St Patrick's Day. I bring this up because I have a story to tell about St Joe.
Our great-grandma Dennehy (or Dennehe) was mom's grandma from Ireland. She was originally Anastasia Hurley and married Michael Dennehe. They were both from County Waterford, Ireland, and came to America about 1880. I don't know if they knew each other in Ireland, or met on the boat over to America, but they got married in New York then went to Illinois where Michael's older half-brother John Dennehe was already settled. It is said Anastasia wanted the hell out of Ireland because when her parents would die, her older brother would inherit everything and she would have to work for him, owning nothing. Irish law at that time was different, and the place was still under the English crown. No wonder so many got the hell out of there.
Anyway, Old Anastasia died about 1914 before my mom could know her. But the story goes that as Anastasia lay dying she had not spoken or opened her eyes for several days. A death vigil was held at her bedside (the family probably couldn't wait to crack open the best whiskey and start the wake..) when all of a sudden Anastasia sat up, opened her eyes and said, "I SEE SAINT JOSEPH! He's standing by my bed!" St Joseph was known to be her favorite saint of all time. And then she died shortly thereafter. My mom must've told me this story a hundred times. So... did St Joe come to get her, or was this just another Irish bullcrap tale? huh? huh?
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2 comments:
Woah. Good story. Keep em comin!
My friend, Lucy, hours before she died, asked her caretaker if she could see the two men sitting on the end of her bed. Caretaker said, no, no one is there. But Lucy insisted that there were two angels at the foot of her bed, and they were men. cool, huh?
Joan
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