Sometime last year after the 10th weekend, members of the team and other SYAers would tell me “you have to meet Ana Lim”.   With all the people who take the weekend and come and go into the community, I never got to meet and talk to Ana.  The first time I actually heard her talk was during the Seven Last Words sharing during Good Friday this year.  Since then I have gotten to know her better - especially since she had volunteered to be a part of the team.  Ana is one person who grows on you.  I just love the way she laughs at even the corniest jokes and makes an effort to make people around her feel very comfortable.  I guess a lot of this has to do with her work as a Human Resources Manager in a big pharma company, but most of it has to do with her growing up with a comfortable circle of friends, a loving family and a strong sense of understanding of her role as an instrument of God’s love.

 

One of the lessons that I have learned from Ana was something I picked up during one of her sharings during the weekend.  She was talking about how during the wake of her mother, there was an endless stream of people who were coming to console her with and saying the usual stuff like “everything will be OK, etc.”  It was when one of her very close friends saw her and did nothing but cry with her and allow Ana to grieve as well that she actually had a chance to mourn the loss of her beloved mother.  How beautiful.

 

Because of my “age” I find myself attending less and less weddings, baptisms and children’s parties and more and more wakes.  It often is awkward for me whenever I sit down with the family.  What I usually do is share with them the memories of the person who has passed away and how he or she affected my life.  If I do not know them but know the children, I really don’t know what to say.  Well, Ana’s story has taught me that sometimes there is no need to say anything.  Just being there and knowing that you mourn with them is enough.