Sister Mary, as I recall, was from Baltimore, and when I left the school where I did my student teaching, she gave me a “gift” she made.

It was a seashell, lacquered to protect it from the elements. The shell was milky white, flecks of orange and yellow, small enough to carry in any pocket. I inscribed the back with her initials and the date.

I always wondered where a Catholic nun teaching at an inland school in the South came across a sea shell and how it became my “good luck” charm and “touchstone.”

I carried it for years through some good, bad, and even terrifying times.

Several years ago, when I found she was at the retirement nunnery in Bardstown where our friend Carolyn also resided, Kay and I visited.

I thanked her for her mentorship and her gift. And I told her how thoughtful and wonderful a person she was at a time I needed.

She smiled, hugged us both, and we visited and told stories and laughed.

Even today, when I sit in my chair at Tranquilla II on the back of Eddy Creek, Lake Barkley, I still think of her. The seashell resides there next to my pipe.

As we left her apartment that day, at the door was a table of “gifts,” she gave each of us one of her treasures along with another hug.

It is a good idea to remember, it is the “little things” in our lives that we remember and that are often important. After all, it is not what we say to a person, it is how we make them feel that they will always recall.

Perhaps, the seashell charm had nothing to do with our home being spared from the recent devastating tornado that hit western Kentucky but I would like to think it may have.

Rest in peace Sister Mary and thank you again.