Késsinnimek - Roots - Racines

THE WEDDING ROSARY
by Louise Dubrule

As with most families of French-Canadian descent, the Catholic church was the center of our lives. Our activities revolved around the liturgical seasons, with all the rites and services. Our fathers belonged to the Knights of Columbus or St. Jean Baptist Society, our mothers joined the Altar Society or Ladies of St. Anne, the girls sang in the choir and assisted with Catechism classes, and the boys were altar servers. In our family, the rosary was especially important: my mother directed the prayers after dinner, and she often fingered her rosary in odd moments saying “I’m praying for all my people.”

It was truly fitting that our parish priest gave me a rosary as a wedding gift in 1956...but what a rosary! The crucifix was heavy silver, and the beads were Texas-sky blue with the Hail Mary ones heart-shaped. I carried it proudly in my wedding bouquet, and then it went with us as we went to different assignments as an Army family. Just as my mother had, I prayed for “all my people.” Our younger daughter, Monique, was intrigued with the history of the rosary, and even as a little girl she expressed the desire to carry it at her own wedding.

The rosary was with me at my mother’s funeral in Richford, Vermont, in April, 1992 as we recited the familiar prayers, and that was the last time I saw it. When I returned home to El Paso, Texas, I realized that it was missing. Phone calls were made and letters were written to the church, the funeral home, the people in whose cars I’d ridden, and all to no avail. The rosary was truly lost. I was devastated, and Monique embarked on a search to find another one like it. No luck there, either.

In December, 1993, Monique came home for the Christmas holidays and for a final fitting on the wedding dress I had made for her. We met her at the airport, and as her father waited for the luggage, I reached into my purse for the car keys….and came up with the rosary in my hand! There were the heavy silver crucifix and the sky blue heart-shaped beads. We were all speechless with the wonder of the find: the long-lost rosary in a recently-purchased purse. Where had it been? How did it come back? In the end, it didn’t matter; what was important is that Monique was able to carry it in her own wedding bouquet January 8, 1994 and it shows clearly in the photos. I gave it to her as a wedding gift, just as our priest had given it to me.

The story would be mysterious enough if it ended there, but there is more. Two years later, Monique’s friend ,Lori, was getting married and she asked Monique to be an attendant. Monique offered to lend the rosary as the “something borrowed” and the “something blue.” On the morning of Lori’s wedding, the ladies were in the bride’s dressing room in St. Mary’s Church in College Station, Texas. This area is reached by stairs at the back of the building, and one must really know that it is there. An unknown young man walked into the dressing room, went to Lori, took her hand, and said “I think you lost this.” He put that blue rosary in her hand and said “I found this in the street a block away and figured you’d be looking for it.” And he left.

Lori broke into tears as she confessed that she had lost the rosary after the rehearsal and hadn’t had the heart to tell Monique. The rosary had been run over by a car sometime during the night, breaking a couple of links, but the heavy silver crucifix and the beautiful blue beads were unharmed. Now the questions began: Who was the young man? How did he know who had lost it? How did he know where the bride’s dressing room was?

Lori didn’t get to carry the rosary because of the broken links, but Monique was able to get it repaired and it is a prized possession. Now she can use it to pray for “all my people” as its history requires.

Louise Dubrule

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