Endings and Beginnings

I had a lot of losses in 2024. I was judged unfairly by the priest in my church, and I had several incidents with members of my church who didn't even bother to ask how I was doing when I had back-to-back back injuries in Feb. 2024. One of them said shortly and abruptly during Holy Week, when I asked her for a ride home, "No, no more rides," (and my back was killing me.) The sacristan, a young man named David, said, "It was probably your impatience." I hadn't been impatient, I just asked her if I could get a ride. I went back to my pew and cried after she refused (I hadn't been expecting her to refuse.) My friend Rachel dashed out of the church on St. Patrick's Day, after Mass, without bothering to see if I needed a hand. I was told that I had to apologize to people who were rude to me. I was thrown out of my ministries in the church from April - November 2024. I was in a psychiatric hospital in May 2024 because of all these troubles at the church and also because of difficulty with a couple of members at my day program, a club for the recovering mentally ill.
I received a letter from Pope Francis' secretary saying he liked my poem that I sent him, and that he would keep me in his prayers, in January 2024. The poem is called "Mother of May."
In October 2024, I visited Italy for 10 days. It was a blessed, informative, exciting trip.
I visited a friend of mine, Stephen, in the hospital several times during 2024. I made him supper and breakfast a couple of times when he stayed over at my apartment. I was reinstated in my ministries in November 2024, singing at our Thanksgiving dinner and reading at Mass. I visited Stephen in the hospital for what turned out to be the last time on Dec. 19, 2024. He had been put on dialysis. He had fainted at his apartment and at the club off and on during 2024. I am a Eucharistic minister, and I brought him Holy Communion. I called him on Friday, Dec. 27, and he passed away New Year's Eve morning.
I had had terrible incidents with a member of my day program named Aggie, until Dec. 16, 2024, when I gave her a present that she liked. I had picked her name out for Secret Santa. We've had a good relationship ever since. Another member named Beth, who is 38 years old, gave me a present for the Secret Santa. Since my son is also 38 years old, I felt as though she was like a daughter to me ( I haven't seen my son since he was a toddler, and he has no contact with me now)
Stephen's death and my new relationship with Aggie mark the beginning of a Blessed New Year in 2025. I attended Mass on January 1, New Year's Day, then got rides to the day program and to Adoration at the church. A staff member at the day program gave me a picture that she had taken of me and Stephen last summer. I'm glad that I'll always be able to look at it and remember.