When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like the passengers in his car.

Monday, December 28, 2009

THERE ARE ANGELS AMONG US – EILEEN O’BRIEN

In my life I am so blessed to have people surrounding me who are such loving, generous, kind, and caring folks. 

One, however, is honestly, I believe, an angel on earth. 

Eileen works tirelessly and endlessly to help find shelter and services for the homeless in Boston.  And as difficult, stressful, and tiring as that is, she still finds room in her heart for her friends. 

Say hi to Eileen O’Brien.  Words really cannot describe the capacity of her heart, so I am just going to publish her story here and let you all meet her and enjoy her words.

God bless ya, Eileen!

“I have two extremely memorable moments. The first has been mentioned by a few others, and that is seeing and hearing The Cowsills in 2000 at TORI. I remember sitting there before the music started, wondering will it be as good as I remember? How could it be? And then hearing those beautiful voices singing together again, realizing it was better than I remembered, and just feeling pure joy. And at the end of the Saturday show, when everyone was cheering wildly, having Billy come back to the front of the stage and say, "we really love you guys, too, and that ain't no bullshit!" It was such a lovely moment.

The second was watching the Boston Red Sox win the 2004 World Series, the first championship for the team in eighty-six years, with my dad. Earlier that evening I had received an award for my work, so my parents were in town. After the ceremony, we went back to their hotel to watch the game in the bar. Seeing this long awaited victory would have been sweet under any circumstances, but to be able to experience it with my dad, who had taught me about baseball, and more importantly, about how to be a Red Sox fan, was a moment I will hold in my heart forever.

As for childhood activities, I grew up in a semi-rural part of town with lots of wide open spaces. In the neighborhood there were five other families with kids all around the same ages and we often played all together as a group. Sometimes we played regular organized games, like baseball or tag, but much of the time we played games that we made up together. There was a big overgrown field behind were our houses were, and we would go into the field and set up camps and create our own adventures. There was a little brook running through the field, and we would hike the brook in the summer, and ice skate there in the winter. Our mothers knew we were together, so they pretty much left us to our own devices, knowing that we were safe together.  We often pretended we were all brothers and sisters; in retrospect I realize that we were a tribe. We spent as much time as we could outside--with no sunblock or bug spray!

My other favorite activity was reading. I have always loved to read and still do. I can remember waking up very early on Saturday mornings so I could read for as long as possible until I had to start doing my chores. My paternal grandmother gave me boxes and boxes of books when her cousin passed away, so I read a lot of novels that took place in the 1940s and 1950s. I still have some of those books today. Classics!”

3 comments:

  1. Yes I like this much better Thanks Kathy

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  2. This past May, I met Eileen at the Continental Drifters reunion show and again the following night for Susan Cowsill's "Sgt. Pepper" CIV show. She seemed like a nice and lovely person in spite of being a Red Sox fan (j/k!) and reading her story only confirms it. :)

    Daryl

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  3. Eileen is an Angel for sure! I love her! XXOO

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