Remembering Mary Jean

hen I was a little girl, my parents came home from a shopping trip, with 3 gowns for my sister and I (and all of the girls in the neighborhood) to use for play and dress up. I can remember that there was a light pink gown, a fuchsia colored gown, and a gold gown.  Today, I know they were either old bridesmaids or prom gowns from a thrift store, but at the time, I felt as if I had walked into the fairy tale.  Though, my sister promptly took them for her own, and I rarely had the opportunity to play with them again, I still remember trying them on and how I wonderful I felt in them.  Even today, I wonder what became of those old gowns...

As a kid, I was always "stuck" with hand-me-downs until Grade 6, because I shot up a full 6 inches taller than my sister as she has never grown over 5' 2".  My parents then had to buy clothes that fit me, and since most of what they bought were my Mother's choice, I hated everything I owned.  My parents did what they could with 4 kids and one salary at that time...no disrespect intended.  So, I got a job after school working in a small-time electronics store and in the summer time doing yard work, and I got a few baby-sitting gigs.  I was now able to buy what I wanted.  Thus, beginning my love affair with 1970's "hippie" and "Bohemian" clothing from which I have never truly recovered.

 Shortly before this, in my hometown of Poultney, (it must have been around 1973 or '74?) there was a little Boutique called "Bombadils" that was owned by this beautiful woman by the name of Mary Jean Lobdell.  She was slightly plump, with very long brown frizzy hair in a Carol King sort of style, that she had grown down to her buttocks. Her face, to me was angelic, in an almost Victorian sense.  Today, I would label her as an all-natural woman, who was an authentic "hippie".  She wore peasant blouses and halter tops over large breasts and long floral skirts, with dangling earrings.  Being young and impressionable, I was always mesmerized by her style.  

Bombadil's was located in the basement underneath our town's laundry mat.  I remember the round sign that hung over the doorway on which were the round popular '70's style writing bearing it's name. Each time I would walk into her shop, my sense of smell would be filled with fragrances that I have never forgotten.  Nag Champa incense, essential oils and mostly I remember sniffing the strawberry scented candles.

Her clothing inventory was geared toward the "College Girls" - from Green Mountain College - with high quality India Imports, brass and wooden incense holders, Indian bedspreads, candles and jewelry.  Ravi Shankar and George Harrison music frequently played while she ironed clothing. 

I remember that once or twice, she painted my finger nails, and offered me a cup of herbal tea.  It seemed she had endless patience and always had a place in her heart for me.  Thinking back, I wonder if I was obnoxious, just showing up in her shop, but she never alluded to it.  The only thing I ever bought was a leather bracelet - and I wore that thing to death.  I just remember how much I loved her because of her genuine kindness toward me.  

Growing up on Main Street, I would walk down to see her.  One day when I was preparing to do so, my sister and her friend Carol Jones stopped me to ask where I was going.  I told them I was going to visit Mary Jean.  Carol held the Rutland Herald newspaper in her hand, and handed it to me.  

The article that she pointed to, explained that Mary Jean had been driving in her blue Gremlin, went off the road and "died of massive head injuries".  Those words jumped off the newspaper.  Strangely, I did not know what to do with this news, as no one I had ever known had died before.  I remember feeling completely numb with tears rolling down my face, and I sat on a hassock in the living room. I was too scared to cry in fear of my sister and Carol laughing at me, because I felt that everything to them, was a joke back then.  But they didn't laugh, and they looked sad, too.  All I remember was, walking up the stairs to our bathroom and weeping into a towel, having no where else to spill my grief.  I was devastated.

I remember that a woman named Harriet Holcomb and her boyfriend Ben took over the store when Mary Jean died.  It was never the same.

About a year or two later a store called "Pearls", which used to be occupied by an old A&P Store on Main Street, came to be.  They had shirts made in India, and I remember buying a few of them over the course of one summer.  If I recall, they went out of business around 1978 - the year before my parents moved my little brother and I to Williamstown.  

My love of clothing today, borders on sickness, and over the course of the last couple of years, I've gained weight and can't fit into a lot of my beloved inventory.  I keep the clothing, vowing to loose the body fat....but let's be honest:  No one wants to read about that!

I still think of Mary Jean.  I don't clearly remember her face any more.  She crawls into my mind when I enter into certain boutiques and smell the incense or essential oils.  In particular, when I smell a strawberry scented candle, I think of her.  I think of her little Gremlin that was parked on the street the week before she died, and can't help but wonder, what made her loose control of her car?   These are things I may never find out, and all I can say is that her spirit truly lives within me.    

St. Raphael

Easter has passed by one day, and yesterday during a phone call with my 86 year old Mother, we took a little trip down memory lane, recalling an Easter from the very early 1970's.  

Mom and Dad had bought my sister and I white fur hats and matching muffs, for Easter Sunday service at St. Raphael's Church in Poultney.  We were also given new white patent leather shoes. 

There were Easter baskets filled with jelly beans, chocolate and other candy waiting for each of us that morning, I recall they sat on the wooden bench that was in the hall way near the front door.  It is the only Easter that I remember as a child.  

Above:  This is the only picture I can find of the interior of St. Raphael's online.  I am very disappointed to find only a black and white photo.  The Church itself is quite stunning.  The Stations of the Cross are very impressive, not to mention it's altar. 

St. Raphael's Church

As a small child, I did not understand why we went to church, and why Dad got to stay home, even after it was explained to me that Dad was Lutheran, and we went to Catholic Church.  To this day, knowing my father, I think going to church with him would have been fun, because he made everything fun, or at the very least, he always made us laugh. 

So who was Raphael? 

"St. Raphael is one of seven Archangels who stand before the throne of the Lord. He was sent by God to help Tobit, Tobiah and Sarah. At the time, Tobit was blind and Tobiah's betrothed, Sarah, had had seven bridegrooms perish on the night of their weddings. Raphael accompanied Tobiah into Media disguised as a man named Azariah.

Raphael helped him through his difficulties and taught him how to safely enter marriage with Sarah. Tobiah said that Raphael caused him to have his wife and that he gave joy to Sarah's parents for driving out the evil spirit in her. He also gave Raphael credit for his father's seeing the light of heaven and for receiving all good things through his intercession. Besides Raphael, Michael and Gabriel are the only Archangels mentioned by name in the bible. 

Raphael's name means "God heals." This identity came about because of the biblical story which claims that he "healed" the earth when it was defiled by the sins of the fallen angels in the apocryphal book of Enoch. Raphael is also identified as the angel who moved the waters of the healing sheep pool. He is also the patron of the blind, of happy meetings, of nurses, of physicians and of travelers. His feast day is celebrated on September 29th.

Raphael (Standard Hebrew רָפָאֵל, Rāfāʾēl, "It is God who heals", "God Heals", "God, Please Heal") is an archangel of Judaism, Islam and Christianity, who in the Christian tradition performs all manners of healing. In Islam, Raphael is the fourth major angel; in Muslim tradition, he is known as Israfil. Raphael is mentioned in the Book of Tobit, which is accepted as canonical by Catholics, Orthodox, and some Anglo-Catholics, and as useful for public teaching by Lutherans and Anglicans. Raphael is generally associated with the angel mentioned in the Gospel of John as stirring the water at the healing pool of Bethesda. Raphael is also an angel in Mormonism, as he is briefly mentioned in the Doctrine and Covenants.

In Catholicism:  Tobias and the Angel

The name of the angel Raphael appears only in the Biblical Book of Tobit. The Book of Tobit is considered canonical by Catholics, Orthodox, and some Anglicans. Raphael first appears disguised in human form as the travelling companion of Tobit's son, Tobiah (Greek: Τωβίας/Tobias), calling himself "Azarias the son of the great Ananias". During the course of the journey the archangel's protective influence is shown in many ways including the binding of a demon in the desert of upper Egypt. After returning and healing the blind Tobit, Azarias makes himself known as "the angel Raphael, one of the seven, who stand before the Lord" Tobit 12:15.He is venerated as Saint Raphael the Archangel.

Regarding the healing powers attributed to Raphael, there is his declaration to Tobit (Tobit, 12) that he was sent by the Lord to heal him of his blindness and to deliver Sarah, his future daughter-in-law, from the demon Asmodeus, who kills every man she marries on their wedding night before the marriage can be consummated.

In the New Testament, only the archangels Gabriel and Michael are mentioned by name (Luke 1:9–26; Jude 1:9). Later manuscripts of John 5:1–4 refer to the pool at Bethesda, where the multitude of the infirm lay awaiting the moving of the water, for "an angel of the Lord descended at certain times into the pond; and the water was moved. And he that went down first into the pond after the motion of the water was made whole of whatsoever infirmity he lay under". Because of the healing role assigned to Raphael, this particular angel is generally associated with the archangel.

Veneration and Patronage

Due to his actions in the Book of Tobit and the Gospel of John, St. Raphael is accounted patron of travelers, the blind, happy meetings, nurses, physicians, medical workers, matchmakers, Christian marriage, and Catholic studies. As a particular enemy of the devil, he was revered in Catholic Europe as a special protector of Catholic sailors: on a corner of Venice's famous Doge's Palace, there is a relief depicting Raphael holding a scroll on which is written: Efficia fretum quietum (“Keep the Gulf quiet”). On July 8, 1497, when Vasco Da Gama set forth from Lisbon with his four ship fleet to sail to India, the flagship was named—at the King of Portugal's insistence—the St. Raphael. When the flotilla reached the Cape of Good Hope on October 22, the sailors disembarked and erected a column in the archangel's honor. The little statue of St. Raphael that accompanied Da Gama on the voyage is now in the Naval Museum in Lisbon.

Iconography

Raphael is said to guard pilgrims on their journeys, and is often depicted holding a staff. He is also often depicted holding or standing on a fish, which alludes to his healing of Tobit with the fish's gall.

Feast day

The feast day of Raphael was included for the first time in the General Roman Calendar in 1921, for celebration on October 24. With the 1969 revision of the General Roman Calendar, the feast was transferred to September 29 for celebration together with archangels Saints Michael and Gabriel.[7] Due to Pope Benedict XVI's Summorum Pontificum, the Catholic Church permits, within certain limits for public use, the General Roman Calendar of 1960, which has October 24 as Raphael's feast day.

Apparitions

The Archangel Raphael is said to have appeared in Cordova, Spain, during the 16th century; in response to the city's appeal, Pope Innocent X allowed the local celebration of a feast in the Archangel's honor on May 7, the date of the principal apparition. St. John of God, founder of the Hospital order that bears his name, is also said to have received visitations from St. Raphael, who encouraged and instructed him. In tribute to this, many of the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God's facilities are called “Raphael Centers” to this day. The 18th century Neapolitan nun, St. Maria Francesca of the Five Wounds is also said to have seen apparitions of Raphael.

Legacy

The following places have been named in honor of Raphael:

Saint Raphaël, France; Saint Raphaël, Quebec, Canada; and San Rafaels in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, Peru, and the Philippines; also San Rafael de El Moján and San Rafael de Orituco in Venezuela.

In the United States, San Rafaels inherited from Mexico survive in California (where besides the city there are the San Rafael Mountains)

New Mexico, and Utah, where the San Rafael River flows seasonally in the San Rafael Desert.

St. Raphael's Cathedral, the seat of the Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin

St. Raphael's Cathedral, the seat of the Archdiocese of Dubuque
Mission San Rafael Arcángel in San Rafael, California.

St. Raphael's Church, Huccaby, Hexworthy, Dartmoor National Park, Devon, England

San Rafael Obrajuelo municipality in La Paz, El Salvador.
Popular culture

Paradise Lost

The angel Raphael, along with many other prominent angels, appears in John Milton's Paradise Lost, in which he is assigned by God to re-warn Adam concerning the sin of eating of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He also expounds to Adam the War in Heaven in which Lucifer and the demons fell, and the creation of the Earth.

Raphael features as one of the four archangels in the TV series Supernatural, the other three being Michael, Lucifer and Gabriel.


He is inspired as one of Kaori Yuki's manga characters from Angel Sanctuary."

St. Raphael Blog post taken directly from: http://www.catholic.org/saints/

1970's HALLOWEEN FLASHBACK

Trick or Treating through the 1970's brings back a feeling of nostalgia.  This morning, I am flooding with memories of the "times".  Costumes were typically Super-Heroes, monsters and witches.  Home made costumes such as gypsies, princesses, bums and pirates were not uncommon.  My oldest friend, Cindy, with whom I "trick or treated" every year as a kid, was always an old lady.  Everyone in our neighborhood knew who she was, and her costume was always very cute, sporting her white wig, long beige coat and rouged cheeks. 

I recall the smell of dried Autumn leaves, apples and chimney smoke; and, the warnings from friends not to go to a certain house because the old lady who lived there put razor blades in the apples she was giving out  - which, of course was not true - but we didn't go there just the same.  As we got older and braver, we would knock on the door just to get the apples to throw at other friends.

Our older brothers would be out around town raising hell - throwing eggs and apples at people and cars - or spraying shaving cream on people - and running away from the local cops....... I guess it was their age and personal form of amusement back then. 

There was definitely more than one occasion where we "trick or treated" with a foot or two of snow on the ground, but it didn't deter us.  Come hell or high-water, we would trudge through the cold with our pillow cases in hand, seeking the candy pot of gold.  I remember one snowy year, where an elderly woman gave us nickels as she had run out of candy!

My family's house was on Main Street, so it was usually the hub of activity.  My sister and her friends, my brother and her friends, and me and my friends would gather out front to watch others, throw eggs at people and cars, yell and scream at one another and so on.  Eventually, my mother would always come to the front door and beckon me to bed.  I was never that disappointed, as it was the opportunity for me to examine my haul from my door-to-door trick or treating.  

All in all, I had a great childhood, and Halloween was always a favorite event for me.