While we were in our final days in Ireland, we got news that Rich’s Uncle Chuck had passed away. He had been sick for awhile now and had valiantly fought cancer for many years. We both flew to DC from Ireland and while I flew home the next day to Omaha, where my parents were watching Lily as she started her senior year, Rich flew to New England to be with family as they said goodbye to Uncle Chuck. Rich wasn’t gone long. He came back about 2 days later, the same day that I left with my parents to drive 9 hours to Elkhart, Indiana, to see my sister, Pam, and her family. We drove there on a Friday, stayed through Monday and drove back to Omaha on Tuesday. Of all the times I have visited my sister in the decades she has lived in that area, I have never been to Notre Dame. The Saturday morning we were there, Notre Dame was playing Ohio in Ohio at night….so the campus was pretty quiet. I had three things I wanted to see. I wanted to see the on the campus: the Golden Dome (Main building), the Grotto, and the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. My mom hadn’t slept well and was looking for a nap. My dad was looking to get some exercise, so I brought him with me. My dad has pretty bad eyesight due to a stroke, and so we walked around the campus with me explaining to him what I was seeing. Luckily, the three things I wanted to see were right beside each other. What I didn’t think of was the fact that it was an away game weekend, so there would be weddings on campus. Sure enough, one was just finishing as we arrived. We walked around the campus grounds for awhile and by the time we got back to the basilica, the bridal party was taking photos outside and we could go inside. I just wanted to share some photos from that morning. We had a really nice time.
Messina Musings 