Fueled By Loyalty And Love

Today I'm thinking about the idea that everything happens

for a reason, as it's supposed to, in its own time. On purpose.

And I'm thinking about it deeply, in part because

of what we're going through with the life

and death of our Aunt, Sister Rosanne.

Hers continues to be a story that inspires.

If you read the post about her Heavenly Home Run last week, then 

you already know that Sister Rosanne was a teacher for 60 years.

During that time, she formed connections and relationships 

with most all of her students and their families. One of them, 

from her third-grade class of 1992, was Donald Reed, the student 

who would eventually become her doctor and her biggest champion.

We came to know more about Dr. Reed in just the past few months, since she took ill in December. The part that's astounding to me is the loyalty that Dr. Reed felt toward her not only as his patient, but as his teacher. 

Not his former teacher, just his teacher.

On Saturday evening at her passing, we were told by the hospice staff that, due to Covid, the willed-body donation program had been temporarily suspended in Louisiana until further notice; essentially, we wouldn't be able to honor her desire to donate her body to science. We'd have to find a funeral home, they added, and they'd take it from there.

When John mentioned this to Dr. Reed on a call Saturday night,

(yes, he took our call on the weekend and called us back numerous times!)

he was having none of it. Surely, he mused, there's a medical facility 

out there somewhere, a medical student out there somewhere, 

who needs to learn what Sister Rosanne has yet to teach.

He offered to use his contacts and he urged us not to give up, to think out-of-the-box, and to find a way to honor her wish. He could buy us some time, he said, by arranging to have her body moved by the Coroner's office and held for the weekend.

By midnight, we had made arrangements for her body to come home to Houston to further the study of future doctors at the UT Medical School.

Even in her death, Sister Rosanne is still teaching.

But in the bigger picture, I can't help but think that

Ashton Reed didn't just happen into her class at

St. Leo's School in Louisiana. I'm pretty sure

that it wasn't by chance that she was his teacher.

But when I think that he was put there 

because one day she'd need him to help

walk her home through her passing and

help us after her death, I get overwhelmed.

And then I am awash with gratitude for the influence

of strong leaders like Sister Rosanne and Dr. Reed

who trust and allow things to unfold as they should.

In an interesting aside, we came across the script for Sister Rosanne's 

Valedictorian speech while we were going through some of her things. 

Even as a high school graduate, just before she'd go into the Convent, 

Sister Rosanne was reflecting upon and writing about loyalty, 

the topic of her speech that night, that same loyalty that caused 

her student, her physician, her angel on earth, Dr. Reed, 

to help us jump that Covid-restriction hurdle and 

honor her wishes to donate her body to science.

All of it. For a reason.

Fueled by loyalty and love.

Annie Mae choosing the Convent

and becoming Sister Rosanne in 1956,

saying yes to teaching 3rd grade in 1992,

inspiring 8-year-old Ashton Reed,

staying in touch for 30 years,

choosing him as her doctor,

trusting him with her care.

In life. And in death.

All of it. Meant to be.

It begs the question: 

If you knew you had your

future physician in your class, 

what, if anything, would you change?

And the bigger question: Do you believe that

everything happens for a reason? If so,

are things predestined? And then, what role

does free will play in our lives and story?