Happy New Year!   Yes, I’m a little late with the greeting, but as they say, better late than never and I hope you agree with this statement.  In light of all the recent activity within our country, church and everyday living, it’s been hard to know exactly what the date is but it is almost February!  I dearly intended to write a New Year greeting, but as stated, things just happened and my fingers just didn’t find a time to connect with the keyboard.  Now I’m rather glad I didn’t get around to writing something as I came across a beautiful article and letter that contains a New Year wish much better than I could have done.  The article I read is titled, “Ireland’s liturgy granny: Nancy Stewart, 107, attends mass daily via of Zoom”.   This is a wonderful article about how Nancy had embarked on a “Virtual Mass Tour” of all 32 counties in Ireland.  I wish I had thought of that as a wonderful pursuit during these days of the pandemic and attending mass via online liturgy.

In addition, Nancy has a facebook page, yes at 107, on which she posts lots of tidbits about Ireland and she is certainly a devout Catholic.  So, what I’m sharing with you today is her New Year’s letter that she hopes will be shared across the world.

‘A Letter of Light’ by Lou & Granny Nancy

To all the people of Ireland and across our lovely world,

My name is Louise Coghlan and I’m 37 years of age and beside me is Granny Nancy Stewart and she’s 107 years of age and we live together in Clonard, County Meath.

We write to you today to offer you our light in a time where the world is still making its way through what has been a very hard year for us all. Yes we are now in the final month of 2020 and we are so proud of each and every one of ye for making it this far. This has not been an easy journey. This has not been anything of what we expected for 2020 and even though we have made it to the end of this year, many have not. Many of our countrywomen and men have left this world for the next not just through Covid19 taking them but through lots of different illnesses and accidents taking them away from their families forever. Lots of our friends have been hurt terribly by 2020 and lots of hearts are feeling broken and lost at this moment in time. Lots of our neighbors, companions and loved ones are feeling weighed down by the darkness of this year and are struggling to find a light to guide them beyond this moment. Many awake every morning unsure of how they will survive the day ahead. This letter is for YOU! We know, there is nothing as heavy as a broken heart, a broken mind or a worried soul. Today, we write these words in an effort to stretch out our hand to you and offer our strength to help you keep going. To help you feel not so alone at this heart-broken time. We are here for you and we promise everything will be ok in the end.

In life, we really never know what’s around the corner for any of us and we think it’s fair to say that 2020 could be defined by that statement alone. If we are to learn anything this year, we think it’s that. We really have very little control on what life is going to throw at us. No matter who we are….no matter where we work or if we are without work…. No matter how much money is in our bank account or how little…. No matter the size of our home or if we are homeless….life will deal you cards that you cannot control. Our fate is destined by something greater than us. But what we do have control on, is ourselves and our own individual efforts and reactions within this world. We can indeed control how we treat each other, how we speak to each other, how we help each other, how we make each other feel and most importantly how we cope when bad things happen. These we feel are the most important strokes of wisdom we as humans need to focus on as 2020 closes. There are people reading this that need us to help them see the step ahead as they are lost in their grief, their heartbreak or are just feeling low at this time. Grief is a guarantee for us all. Once we love another human, grief will one day come knocking on our heart. We must be actively showing kindness to each other when we can because one day it will be us with our heads bowed down and our hearts broken. At this moment in time, there are many people lost in their sadness of a cross that bears heavy on their daily lives. It’s over to us to hold a light out from our hearts to help guide them from their darkness. This must be the focus for 2021 for each of us as individuals but also as a nation and as a world. We must learn from what 2020 has being trying to teach us. We must not step into a new year and not learn that the most important part of being a human is to the gift and the superpower of shining a light for someone who is lost in the darkness. And at any moment, we might be the ones needing that light shone. Life is as fragile as a dream.

Myself and granny decided to write this letter to offer our light as we face into the end of 2020. This time of year is usually associated with joy and fun, laughter and get togethers but for this year, it will different. It will be strained in many ways for many people. This can be a time of intense loneliness and I think for us all we have been reminded of the fragility of life and the fragility of our loved ones in this year more than any.

Both myself and gran have gone through our own heavy times in our own individual ways & understand how at this time of the year, your heart can feel extra broken and extra lonely . I lost my dad to rapid lung cancer six years ago and I was tortured for a long time in seeing him die in such pain and suffering and to leave within weeks of finding out his diagnosis, and my gran lost her husband in a car accident in 1989 while driving into mass. She never got to say goodbye to her dearly beloved soulmate and when she regained consciousness a week after the accident, her husband wasn’t just gone but his funeral was over. Loneliness and grief are two of the heaviest crosses you will ever carry in your life and if you are feeling the weight of these struggles as you read this letter, we want to offer you our strength, our resilience and our promise that you will come through this very hard time. We offer you our story and our light to help you feel less alone if you are travelling your own path of darkness as your read this. Myself and gran are carrying a lantern of light within our hearts for you and we have been in your shoes and we can help you see the next step by sending these words to you. We are the proof that when the world for you feels empty of hope, love and light, we in this letter give you ours. We promise you everything will be ok in the end and you can come through this very tough time. We ask you to stretch out to someone if you are feeling very low and want to remind that you are loved more than you could ever imagine. You can come through this darkness and back out into the light. It won’t be today. It might not be tomorrow, or the day after that but I promise you, until that day we will shine our lantern of ever flowing light over you. We also have you wrapped up in our daily prayers and will send you all our strength. One day when you feel a bit brighter, maybe you might pass the lantern of light back to us when we don’t feel so good ourselves. The gift and magic of the light is that it moves between humans and only you can give it away when you too have felt the magic of it.

Keep looking up. Keep going. Keep being you. We will always be here for you.

Your friends of Light and Love,

Lou & Granny Nancy xxx

And to this end, I’m doing my part, both by sharing her letter and by making it my resolution for 2021 to be a light/lantern when needed in the world.  God bless you all and Happy New Year!