A prayer

A prayer

Abba, You are good.
You hold us in your hands.
Abba, You are good.
Hold my mother, Patricia in Your hands.
Hold Patricia Lynn Weiss in Your hands. The one born Patricia Lynn McMullen.
Hold her in Your hands.

Abba, You are good.
You watch over our comings and goings.
Abba, You are good.
Watch over Patricia’s comings and goings.
Watch over her comings and goings in the 1988 Toyota Camry. The one with the unconfinable hood and the smelly cat back seats. Watch over her comings and goings in the 1988 Toyota Camry that she drives to work. To work with children in the element
ary school where my sister and I spent some of our happiest years.
Watch over her comings and goings in the 1988 Toyota Camry that she drives as she returns home to 312 Birch Drive in Wheaton, Illinois.
Watch over her coming and goings.

Abba, You are good.
You heal the suffering.
Abba, You are good.
Heal Patricia.
Heal her from this sickness, this cancer, this heartslaying that has touched her and hurt her. Safeguard her from future illness and disease.
Heal her heartbreak on the passing of our family dog, Target who lived with us for thirt
een years.
Heal her suffering.

Abba, You are good.
You grow beauty.
Abba, You are good.
Grow Patricia in her love of your beauty. She works your ground and plants flora and fauna. Grow her gardens. She loves your trees that grow along the DuPage and Fox Rivers, the stones on the beaches of Lake Michigan and Herrick Lake. Keep her from overlooking the wonders you have created.
Grow her.

Abba, You are good.
You protect those for whom we care.
Abba, You are good.
Protect Patricia. Protect her family in the town where she was born and raised. Protect those in Massena, New York. She loves horses. Where she was Patricia Lynn McMullen. Protect her from homelongingness. Protect her husband, my father, who led her to Wheaton, Illinois. Where she became Patricia Lynn Weiss. Protect their love and marriage. Protect their home. My home. Where maples and oaks and crabapples grow. Protect their trees. Their limbgrowths. Protect from lovelack and joylack.

Keep her from, want, pain, hunger, despair, loneliness, temptation. Keep her.

Abba, You are good.
I raise the name of Patricia Lynn Weiss, born Patricia Lynn McMullen, to you.
Abba, You are good.