The Chapel

 

 

More mountains...!  Here's the Catalina's from atop the parking garage at St. Joseph's Hospital. 

 

I found, that when I parked, those mountains pulled my eyes to them like magnets.  Looking at the hospital itself, I tried to see the windows for each room that Kim stayed in...while giving birth to the bambini, and while fighting

 

I was there for a planning meeting, nearly the last one, for the new chapel.  John, the director of the Carondelet Foundation that administers Kim's Fund, led me through the construction site. 

 

 

This is a view as you enter from the east side of the site, just beyond the Outpatient entrance.

 

This cinder block wall will have Kim's name on it....

 

This will be a little seating and garden area.

 

I was stunned with how much progress had been made.  More so by the transformation of what was essentially a dirt lot, stuck between Outpatient and leading to the main set of elevators.  When I try to describe to people the new chapel's exact location, no one can quite pinpoint it.  In some ways, I am glad - because they have not had to be around the hospital so much that they had explored every garden, staircase, corridor...even the basement.

 

 

This will be the entrance into the chapel.  The existing rooftop to the second floor provides extra cover.

 

A garden/meditation area tucked behind Outpatient services.

 

These pillars have always been there, propping up 4 stories of hospital above.  Just beyond them, will be a sliding partition, that will open up the chapel for larger services/events. 

 

What I remember most about this soon to be forgotten (and never discovered by many) dirt lot, are the races the bambini and I had across the dirt, coming to see their Mama and taking them home again.  Their small footprints the only evidence that they had been there...

 

 

Inside is still a work in progress...

 

Straight ahead will be the altar.

 

I watched, amazed, as this hard working man made his way on stilts, applying mud to the ceiling.  I stopped him, apologetically, to ask if I could take his picture.  I told him the bambini would be fascinated.  He smiled and told me ok, for one hundred dollars!  His boss laughed harshly and told me to be sure to show my children - and tell them this is what they'd end up doing if they didn't do well in school.  I told him everyone contributes in what ever way they can.  I let him know that they were doing a great job and how important their work was to bring this chapel, where people could pray for loved ones, hospital workers could find strength to go on...a small place of peace.

 

After the meeting, John walked me towards the parking garage...but, I told him, I needed to run the stairs, as was my ritual.  I ran to the 5th floor and walked those hallways...

...then down to the 3rd, where I saw Alejandro, a patient transporter, who had wheeled Kim through the halls on her way to xrays, sonograms, surgeries.  We worked together at Kohl's...

Then, on to ICU, where I saw Vivian, a tech who brought so many smiles to Kim's face.  To the bambini's faces. 

And Dr. McCarten.  In charge of ICU.  The poor soul that had to tell Kim and I it was time to say goodbye to each other.  One of the most compassionate men I've ever met.  Who fought tirelessly to find a way...

...it was his last day at St. Joseph's, as he is moving on to Florida.

 

I always take a little bit away from that hospital, where I had left so much behind...

 

....and, as I got back into my truck...

 

                               ...once again, it was the mountains that captured me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                     

More Mountains

   

                 Since writing about the mountains, and our love for them, I have noticed the subtle variances in all four ranges that we enjoy - given the time of day, cloud cover, precipitation, state of mind, etc, etc....even more than at any given time in the 19 years that I have lived her.

               Today, making deliveries, driving across town on my way home - they spoke to me, as they always do.  Soothing.  Relieving stress.  Majestic.

                      
                     Without thinking, I reached for my cell phone and dialed Kim...ringing...me lost in the view...ringing...the worries of the day draining, just need to share this with Kimmy...ringing....

                        "Hey Dad."....

                         ...."Dad?"....

                         ..."Yeh, hi Cod."....

                         ..."You OK?"...

                         ..."Uh, sure.  How was your day?"....

                   In the moment, forgetting that Kim's cell is now Cody's...

                   I actually, for a moment the other day, when reaching for my cell to call her,thought of her Bethlehem number...866-4176...it came so easily, so naturally, I actually had the area code and 866 dialed before realization sunk in and I hung up.

 

The tip of the Rincon's, east of our neighborhood, its peak dusted with snow at sunset...

 

Rolling clouds above the Catalina's.

 

                          Today, I found myself up north delivering books to Ironwood Ridge H.S.  Here's some shots of the backside of the Catalina's...

 

The back of Mt Lemmon, with just a hint of snow.

 

                             This one, I took from the San Xavier Mission yesterday morning before Mass.  The mountains fit in nicely with San Xavier...and why I go there.  I lit candles for a friend with child.  A friend in transition.  A surrogate grandmother of a friend who is in the hospital.  And, of course, for Kim.

                               I could go on like this.  Taking pictures.  Trying to capture the Catalina's, the Rincon's, the Santa Rita's and the Tucson mountains at various stages of their glory.  They are beautiful.  Incredible...

                                Kimmy?  The mountains are still beautiful!!  I haven't forgotten.

                                Or let 'life' get in the way....

                                I haven't lost sight of them...




                                  ...yet.

 

 

      Trying to keep Kimmy alive...meeting tomorrow with Carondelet to discuss Kim's area in new chapel at St. Joseph's...garden?  Bench?  And verbage on either/or...
   
       AND, Klimb 4 Kimmy 3 coming up on Saturday March 2nd!!  Asking for $25 to walk, and Andrea's cousin Jack will design t-shirts again this year - $10 each!!
 

They're always there...

                 I haven't lost sight of the mountains Kimmy...

             

                The first year or so that we live here, in Tucson, were giddy times for Kim and I.  We had moved to our personal paradise.  Escaped the snow, pollution, break neck speed pace of the east coast.  We were planning our wedding. Our wedding!  Our apartment complex had more amenities that we ever knew what to do with.  Kim got a job as a vet tech, a dream of hers to work with animals.  We bought our first house together.  Built our first house together!

                And we loved when people asked us 'how long you lived here?'  'Three days!'  "How you liking it?"  "We LOVE the mountains!!!"  Blank stares. No matter how long we had been here, we always went on about how beautiful the mountains are.  How when you came out of work, after a long day, no matter which direction you happened to be facing, you'd be mesmerized by one of the four mountain ranges surrounding Tucson...the stress ebbing out of you as you soaked in their beauty.

              "I guess after you've lived here for awhile, you kinda forget about the mountains." We were told. 

          Or; "You just get so hung up with work, errands and daily life, that you don't notice the mountains so much."

              I can tell you, emphatically, we never took our mountain views for granted.  We'd point out to each other, how different they appear at various times during the day, because of the way the sun hit them.  Sometimes reddish, sometimes purplish.  The shadows accenting different formations and canyons.  Especially the Catalina's, to the north, with Sabino Canyon in the forefront.  And the Rincon mountains to the east at sunrise.  The Tucson mountains to the west take on a prehistoric glow at sunset.  And the Santa Rita mountains to the south look incredible as our monsoon takes shape.  And when there was snowfall (we loved when it was just on the mountains, not too cold down here!), they were stunning.  It seems that with each month and season, they look just a little bit different.
              The angles that you are coming at them make a big difference, too.  We liked the northwest side of the Catalina's, up by Pusch Ridge.  Hiking in Catalina State Park with our 'first born' Cajun.
               And noticed that driving along Mary Ann Cleveland Way (a REAL person, I've met her!), coming back from Vail or Cienega H.S., the Rincon's appear nearly parallel to the Catalina's. You can barely make out Reddington Pass from such an angle.
              Driving back up from Tubac,  you get a great angle of the Santa Rita's and the huge observatory that is on it's eastern peak (my buddy, Mike, works up there, aiming the telescope to different point for the astrologists).  The scorched desert stretching to that outcrop of rock makes me think of the photos I've seen of the Serengeti.

               Each set of mountains...shows a different look...a different face highly dependent on the light, clouds, height of the sun.  And, in the instant that you are admiring it - the moment you decided to pull over to take a photo - it can change that quickly!

 

From every part of the city - a new perspective...delivering books to Amphi High School, I tell Kim - "I see them honey.  They look beautiful"...

 

Taking games and books and scooping ice cream for the folks at Ellie Towne Community Center, which is the home of Catholic Community Services...I can see them!

 

 

                                     Early clouds as we leave our neighborhood on the Rincon's.

                                      Across the desert, just outside our neighborhood, the Rincon's meet the Catalina's.

                        The Catalina's, obscured by clouds with a burst of sunshine on their foothills...taken just outside of Baggin's where I took Breanna, Autumn and Antonio for lunch the other day (and we made a big deal over the bread "This sandwich is sooooo good!  Did you do something different?"  The lady told us the bread now is baked at Viro's Italian Bakery...To which we replied "It is AMAZING!!  You need to let your manager know we LOVE the bread!!").


                        The mountains.  We loved them.  They are amazing, majestic and ever changing...We never took their beauty for granted - and that feeling permeated throughout our relationship...we lived for each moment.  I know that I could have spent days, weeks and months taking photos of the mountains to show you the differences that I am talking about....
                         I show the bambini, every day, telling them to look!  Look at how the Santa Rita's look with a monsoon rumbling across them.  Look!  Look at the sun peeking over the Rincon's to say good morning.  Look!  Look at the lengthening shadows playing over the Catalina's in the late afternoon - or the dusting of snow on the top of Mt Lemon.  And the bright shades of red, spilling over the Tucson Mountains at sunset. 

                          Incredible.

                          And yet again, I remember Kim's enthusiasm for life.  Her unselfish, giving, loving, caring approach to each and every day.  For Kim, life was like our beautiful mountains - evolving with the day - every moment different, yet wonderful...