The hours I spent with thee, dear heart,
Are as a string of pearls to me;
I count them over, every one apart,
My rosary.
Each hour a pearl, each pearl a prayer,
To still a heart in absence wrung;
I tell each bead unto the end -- and there
A cross is hung.
Oh, memories that bless -- and burn!
Oh, barren gain -- and bitter loss!
I kiss each bead, and strive at last to learn
To kiss the cross,
Sweetheart,
To kiss the cross.
When I found the Rosary it laid in the street along with debris and other personal items that had been blown out of the Murrah Building, I slipped it into my pocket as if it was a gift of God that he had spared me from this tragedy! Later that day I found my self at a Red Cross shelter about 13 blocks North of the blast, it had been set up in St. Luke’s United Methodist Church and this is where I would stay for the next 14 days sleeping on a cot along side about 200 other people, some where victims some where family members waiting on any word that they had found their loved ones! This is also where my path would cross with Philly! She was a family member waiting on word of her sister Dianne. Me and Philly would spend hours talking, and praying. We would walk down to the site and stare at the shell of the Murrah. As we talked Philly had told me that Dianne had collected Rosary’s! It had never came to me that the one I had found could possibly belong to her sister the thought never entered my mind! And at one point I bought a Rosary and gave it to Philly, I told her that when they find her sister she needs to give it to her. As time passed on we did eventually get word that Dianne had passed! I went on to stay in the first of a series of hotel rooms and Philly returned home to bury her sister. At the 10 year reunion as me and Philly stood at her sisters chair, she told me that the Rosary that I had gave her had been placed in Dianne’s glass box located in the Oklahoma City National Memorial. I had never told Philly about the Rosary I had found that day and like many times before I had the Rosary with me it was at this time I opened my hand up and showed it to Philly she looked at me with a tear in her eye and softly said that’s my sisters. To this day I still have the Rosary.
Are as a string of pearls to me;
I count them over, every one apart,
My rosary.
Each hour a pearl, each pearl a prayer,
To still a heart in absence wrung;
I tell each bead unto the end -- and there
A cross is hung.
Oh, memories that bless -- and burn!
Oh, barren gain -- and bitter loss!
I kiss each bead, and strive at last to learn
To kiss the cross,
Sweetheart,
To kiss the cross.
When I found the Rosary it laid in the street along with debris and other personal items that had been blown out of the Murrah Building, I slipped it into my pocket as if it was a gift of God that he had spared me from this tragedy! Later that day I found my self at a Red Cross shelter about 13 blocks North of the blast, it had been set up in St. Luke’s United Methodist Church and this is where I would stay for the next 14 days sleeping on a cot along side about 200 other people, some where victims some where family members waiting on any word that they had found their loved ones! This is also where my path would cross with Philly! She was a family member waiting on word of her sister Dianne. Me and Philly would spend hours talking, and praying. We would walk down to the site and stare at the shell of the Murrah. As we talked Philly had told me that Dianne had collected Rosary’s! It had never came to me that the one I had found could possibly belong to her sister the thought never entered my mind! And at one point I bought a Rosary and gave it to Philly, I told her that when they find her sister she needs to give it to her. As time passed on we did eventually get word that Dianne had passed! I went on to stay in the first of a series of hotel rooms and Philly returned home to bury her sister. At the 10 year reunion as me and Philly stood at her sisters chair, she told me that the Rosary that I had gave her had been placed in Dianne’s glass box located in the Oklahoma City National Memorial. I had never told Philly about the Rosary I had found that day and like many times before I had the Rosary with me it was at this time I opened my hand up and showed it to Philly she looked at me with a tear in her eye and softly said that’s my sisters. To this day I still have the Rosary.
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