Funeral Homes and Holy Cards

I was born in Olympia, Washington.  My father worked at Mills& Mills Funeral Home in downtown Olympia and
my family lived in an apartment upstairs. My grandparents also lived above Mountain View Funeral Home in
Lakewood.  I spent many hours playing in the around the funeral home in Lakewood and my grandparent’s home above the funeral home.  There was a long list of off limits areas in the funeral home; the casket sales room (did you know that caskets are only lined with the pretty material in the top half of the coffin?  Apparently no one has complained), the slumber rooms where dead people were laid out for private viewings (of course I snuck into empty and occupied rooms) and a greenhouse that had one particular plant that was my favorite, Devils Club.  I loved the idea that these “Devil’s Clubs” growing so close to the dead, possibly increasing the chance that someone would be mistakenly dragged to hell, something I did not want to miss.

Our family was Catholic and I spent first and second grade in Catholic school.  My father would
drop me off early so I could attend mass before school.  Looking back I am sure it was an opportunity for before-school care, but I enjoyed mass very much.  Very few people attend the early mass, just a few students and the nuns. Some children collected baseball cards; I collected holy cards given to me by the nuns at those early masses.  I have a deep love of ritual and art as spiritual inspiration that are influenced by my experiences during this time. Although none of my cards survived my early agnostic years I have begun a new holy card collection, I love really old holy cards, and I am always on the search for cards of women saints, St. Lucy,
patron saint of eyes, is shown with St. Lucy with her glaring empty eye sockets offering her eyes on a silver tray.  Now we are talking a holy card worth collecting.