During the Year of the Priest Peachy decided to start praying for priests, collecting their signatures to her prayer book. I tried to dissuade her knowing it would end up as my project too. DO I WANT to collect signatures for her? DO I want to go up to men, "Hi Father, I'm a stalker. My imaginary daughter prays for priests, and I want you to sign this book. My PRECIOUS!! Would you sign? My PRECIOUS!!" Yeah no not so much, unless I know the guy and even then I send her in to do the dirty work, but I do it 'cause I love that little girl and she lights up when she gets more signatures! I'm SURE those men think me a lunatic!
I get all sorts of responses: genuine admiration, humble gratitude, awkward disbelief, tolerance and outright disinterest. The two I remember most:
- the priest I interrupted from Wisconsin who's face fell in disbelief, gave me his full attention and hugged me like we were old childhood friends. He promised to hold her in his heart at his next mass and to be sure, he wrote her name on a napkin and stuffed it in his clerical front shirt pocket.
- the priest from Europe who stopped everything to stare at me like I was a saint (I decided not to disabuse him of that notion because I really needed that boost at the time, that and I suspected he knew better. ) He smiled at me like he just won the lottery. He then proceeded to write a heartfelt blessing for her.
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