Meet An Unusual Saint

I have a friend named Christine who has a very big heart and very good sense of humor. And if you sit with her any time at all she has you laughing so hard you are crying. Perhaps it is because she is Italian and from Long Island and her New York sense of humor is so familiar: almost all the famous comedians in the world come from New York, so the cadence of the New York voice helps the humor along quite a bit. Maybe it is in the water there. Or in this case, maybe it is in the water in the baptismal font.



I didn't know Christine long before she told me about St. Helen the Patron Saint of Parking. Not being a Catholic, I wasn't sure if I should laugh at this or not. Oh yes indeed, Christine said. St. Helen the Patron Saint of Parking is her late mother, Helen B., who, upon her death achieved beatification in order to look out for all of us women who, when shopping, find ourselves endlessly in search of a place to put the car.

It was funny enough to hear that she had elevated her mother to sainthood, and funnier still that this sainthood involved parking. But it got better. As my sister and I looked on, Christine went out to her car and produced St. Helen's prayer card, something with which, as Protestants, we were not familiar.

St. Helen's prayer card, not yet sanctioned by the Vatican, is laminated and carries a picture of a halo-ed St. Helen standing by--what else?--a car. The photo had originally been of Helen B. on her honeymoon, standing by the car she and Christine's father drove down to Florida. Of course she's smiling. She's on her honeymoon. And, since she was in Florida at the time, she was wearing a big straw hat.

With a little help from Photoshop, the hat became a halo, and the halo seems to turn Helen's sly honeymoon smile into something more angelic. On the back of the card is this prayer:

Dear Helen in Heaven
Help me find my space
I don't want to look
All over the place

Give me a good one
So I'll know where to steer
When it comes to parking
You're always near

Sweet Helen in Heaven
I don't pray a lot
But please help me find
A good parking spot
Amen

My sister and I were laughing pretty hard at this point. "It seems so sacrilegious," she said sotto voce to me as she wiped away her tears. "But I just can't stop laughing. It is such a funny thing to do with your late mother's picture."

Christine looks a lot like her mother, who died when Christine was just 21. Though the death took place a long time ago, the thought of it is still painful to Christine who will tell you that in a quiet moment. It was a heart attack or a stroke--I can't remember which--and one minute Helen was there, and the next she was gone. Christine didn't even have time to say goodbye.

At the root of almost all humor is pain. Christine dealt with hers by turning her mother into the Patron Saint of Parking. And the laughter that brings to each of Christine's friends helps to keep the memory of Helen a sunny one. What a lovely thing.

Christine insisted on giving me one of St. Helen's prayer cards to keep in my car.

And I've kept it there for years through various vehicles. It reminds me of Christine and her sense of fun. And it makes me think how each of us can take the clay of our sorrow and mold it in to something else, something that will make it easier for us to go forward with our lives--not forgetting, but no longer with tears.

So I keep St. Helen's prayer card in my car, and it makes me smile.

And one more thing. I never, ever, have to look for a parking place.