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Merry Christmas Greetings from Rita 2020 is a year I want to forget. The year I lost my husband, Ron, my grandson, Joe and my pet dog, Maggie. I am going through the various stages of grieving. Crying is a good part of it. Adjusting to living alone has been interesting to say the least. I have a new companion, Alexa and soon a Ring doorbell and Security cameras so I feel safer in my home. I have taken steps to make my home safer: new flooring in the living room, the house has been painted a cheery color and all the cracks under the eves have been chalked, the front fence has a coat of paint, too, plus my bathrooms, hallway and kitchen. After 15 years of not decorating my home for Christmas, I purchased a 4 ft. tree and decorated it. It is brightening my days of Advent as I await the coming of our Lord on Christmas day. Hopefully, the new year will be brighter and some normalcy will prevail. I am really over it right now. I take precautions and know COvid 19 is real, but it is time to start living again. We will all die someday of something. It’s a given. God bless you and keep you, May He shine His face upon you in 2021.          The love of my life passed peacefully on January 30th. His celebration of life is on March 28th at St. Gall church in Gardnerville, NV. May he rest in peace.          The year has quickly gone by and Christmas is almost here. Been going to different family gatherings and it is wonderful that we have the opportunity to enjoy these festivities. Daughter Sara had an Open House to show her new remodel projects. Thanksgiving was spent at Chris and Mary's get away home in Topaz. Last night we got together at daughter Keri's home to left over turkey in the form of a pot pie and visit with our grandson Steve and his family, Eric, Chris, Mary and granddaughter Ann-Marie. Today we stayed inside our house, because it snowed last night and it is cold out there.           We enjoyed a visit from Aaron and Lisa. We enjoyed memories of our granddaughter Allison's wedding to Trevor Love. Beautiful bride and groom and lovely venue. The summer is quickly moving by and we have just been living life. Getting together with family members is always exciting. Earlier, we had grandson, Joe visit us, too. It is wonderful seeing Joe. He has an exciting future ahead of him. This summer he is scheduled to learn how to fly with the Air Force, Next semester is the start of his senior year at the Air Force Academy. His brother, Porter is also in the Air Force and is stationed in Florida with the Bomb Squad (EOD) The Bomb Squad consists of highly trained members that respond to and render explosive devices safe and to provide guidelines, training and assistance to department personnel responding to explosive ordnance calls.            Ron Hill took a DNA test to get more info on his heritage. We have learned that both of his father’s (Melvin) parents were of Portuguese decent ~ John Mora and Carolyn Lewis. John Mora was a barber and died young. Carolyn then married William Hill and Melvin was raised as their son. He didn’t know about his birth father until later in life. He changed his last name legally to Hill. It had been a mystery to Ron's Mom Rose. She always thought that Melvin's parents got divorced. The truth is that John Mora died young when Melvin was only 2 years old. Carolyn remarried William Hill and raised the baby as his. Through newspaper articles, I discovered the truth.    Wonderful things have been happening in the ministries I am involved. One is Landings Welcoming Returning Catholics, We just finishing a session with a 90 year old man who had been away over 60 years. He said when visiting Germany and Austria a few months back, he was touched by an enveloping feeling when he entered the first church. Like angel wings surrounding him. All he wanted to do was to stay there and pray. It happened with each church he visited. He knew he was supposed to go back to his roots and his Catholic faith. When he was first meeting with me about Landings, his sister called and told him, she too was returning. Neither knew the other was doing it. He finished his session and now is proudly helping with another session, two more returnees with 40 + years away and a parishioner who is in training to help with future Landings. All this with over two years of dormancy. Besides all the activity in our parish, two other parishes have contacted me about Landings, St. Rose of Lima and Our Lady of Snows are considering implementing the program. This week, 3 members of the parish counsel of St. Rose of Lima came to observe what we do in our sessions. It was a pleasant visit. Eddie, Paula and I are in a pro-life ministry, “Save the Holy Innocents,” started by a parishioner and his wife from St. Teresa of Avila. http://www.savetheholyinnocents.com/ At our last monthly meeting, we had a visit from +Thomas Mar Eusebius Bishop of Parassala, our group has decided to sponsor two seminarians from his diocese Brother Akhil M. and Nitheesh Simon. The bishop has 16 men in his seminary. Please keep these men in your prayers. Besides “Landings” and “Save the Holy Innocents,” I am in a small faith sharing group each week at St. Gall and I am a Benedictine Oblate connected to Our Lady of Guadalupe Monastery in Phoenix AZ. Sr. Lydia came this month to give us a Lenten retreat that ended with Taizé prayer. We got inspiration for our Lenten journey. As a group, we all thought in this world of confusion, hatrred and evil, we should follow our Lord’s command to witness by our love, kindness, and gentle spirit and follow his commands. Here are some pictures of the various groups. Haven't had much time to update this site. Since it is snowing, I will try to post some of the most recent news regarding our O'Neill family DNA results. Results are in from the Big Y DNA tests and we know we are linked to the Clanaboy O'Neills and the O'Neills of the Fews.
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