DAYS GONE BY I am a baby boomer and my post war childhood was free, playful, and full of love.   My biggest decisions rested mostly on playtime and what’s there to eat.   My family of five consisted of my parents, me (the oldest) and two brothers.   My paternal grandparents lived on our three acre farm in a small home of their own.   My father worked two jobs, my grandpa took care of the farm, including chickens, a calf, Sam the lamb, two hunting beagles, a few goats and a huge garden.  My grandmother (in picture with me) and mom sold roasting chickens, eggs and preserved the produce from the garden for winter consumption. Life was simple! My childhood was worry free therefore, I was afford such carefree times of snowy winters of building snowmen, snowball fights and a host of activities the imagination of a child to produce soaked wet clothes, red face and runny nose. Summer’s allowed us children to run in the rain on a hot summer day with undies on, bar of soap in

WELCOME PAPA FRANCIS TO THE USA…WE LOVE YOU! VIVA PAPA © Linda Mary Liotino ME A SERVANT OF CHRIST MISSION 2015 © Watercolor painting by FRANCO JOSEPH…Owned by ME A SERVANT OF CHRIST MISSION 2015 

MIRACLE Last week I went on retreat to my favorite place Our Lady of Lourdes Basilica Poondi, South India.  This for me is a place to rejuvenate in mind, body and spirit it is my “little piece of heaven.”  For several years I have been having dizzy spells that occur mostly when I lay down, get up or tilt my head a certain way.  They would occur for a small period of time then disappear.  This year the occurrence was almost every day and began to be worrisome too me.  I had dodged the “go see a doctor” mantra from friends and family but this retired nurse began self-diagnosing and I ran the gambit from cancer to a tumor. I in the last five years in India never needed a doctor for I went back to the states to be operated on for cancer in 2011.  As anyone knows to pick a doctor you at least want to have some kind of rapport and understanding, which I found in a Franciscan Doctor and Nun who happens to also be a Surgeon.  Doctor Sister’s diagnosis was simple I am getting o

PURITY OF INNOCENCE If we cannot fathom the plight of the refugees we can relate to the suffering and death of a child.  Many children caught up in wars and are apart of a plan to escape do not understand the why of it all.  The PURITY OF INNOCENCE knows no hate, anger, deception and the like for their pureness has yet to be corrupted by evil.  They know fear and anxiety for the people around them cannot hide the danger that bites at their heels.  They know nothing of death they have so little time in life and yet death darkens their lives.  The families of these children protect them and shelter them as much as they can but the evil of wars knows no mercy, sees no innocence, and knows only the hatred that blackens their hearts.  It is because of this, decisions by families are made in hope for better place for their PURITY OF INNOCENCE leaving all behind, for nothing matters but the children. Unless our hearts are made of stone the seeing of a young child perhaps two or