Me Pops would have been 85 today. Seeing as his Pops, me Grandpa Joe, barely took care of himself while taking a lot of silly risks, made 86, I sure didn't expect the old man to go home at 77. But such is life, eh?
I can only rarely hear Dad's voice anymore yet I hear his laugh regularly and readily. When I think of it, I hear it, simple as that. I might hear single words. I can hear him rap on my bedroom door and say, "Marty" when it was time to get up for school or work from when I was growing up. Underlying parental authority sticks with us, perhaps.
The only time I can actually hear his voice for more than a word is when I think of him chanting in Latin. About twenty five years ago my wife and I took the kids to participate in a novena, nine days of prayer, at old St. Dominic's one summer. We wanted to instill in them the idea of prayer as a habit. The services as such began at 7 each evening. Everyone present participated in the prayers, which ended with the hymn O Salutaris Hostia. It was written by St. Thomas Aquinas, whose feast day is also today.
Unexpectedly but unsurprisingly Dad was participating in the novena as well. I always rather believed that he did it to help his grandkids appreciate prayer too, through leading by example. I still hear him plainly at the end of each night, chanting: O Salutaris Hostia! Quae caeli pandis ostium! Bella premunt Hostilia; Da robur, fer auxilium! I especially hear his voice raise at Da robur, with an honest lilt while singing fer auxilium!
He had a good voice. And ain't it something that I hear me Pops the clearest chanting an 800 year old Latin anthem?
Happy 85th birthday Pops.
For those interested an English translation of the hymn is:
O SAVING Victim opening wide
The gate of heaven to all below.
Our foes press on from every side;
Thine aid supply, Thy strength bestow.
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