Emily M. DeArdo's Blog, page 4
February 7, 2024
Emily’s Ohio Senate Recognition (01/24/2023)
Senator Tim Shaffer gives a tribute to Emily in the 135th General Assembly at the Ohio State House (January 24,2024).
On January 24,2024, Emily was recognized by Senator Tim Shaffer in a 6-minute tribute to her at the Ohio General Assembly meeting that ended in a moment of silence for her beautiful life and service to the Senate communications team.
You can watch the Senate video by clicking on the image above or the link below (starting at the 22:46 mark):
Link to Video
Below is an image of the Resolution that Emily’s parents received from the Senate in her honor as well. Such an amazing legacy Emily has left behind - we thank God for her life well lived and that it continues to have ripple effects throughout the community.
January 24, 2024
Preparing for Lent (Resources from Emily)
With Lent being 3 weeks away from today, we wanted to provide a few resources to help deepen your Lenten experience. We’ve pulled together dear Emily’s past resource links to provide assistance. We encourage you to prepare for Lent this year with intention and even to get specific on what and how you will seek the Lord in this season.
We also would like to take a moment to propose that this year, in honor of Emily’s memory, that you might consider reading her book, Living Memento Mori, as you go through Lent. Whether on your own, with your family or with friends, we’d love to hear any stories/testimonies/impact that anyone experiences during this blessed season.
Pick up a copy:
Amazon
Ave Marie Press
Seton Shrine
Emily’s Lent series:
And here are some other good Lent links:
January 9, 2024
National Review: Tribute to Emily
Link to full article from National Review can be found HERE.
Emily wrote a book about death, Living Memento Mori: My Journey through the Stations of the Cross. I recommend it even though most of us don’t really want to think about death. But it’s important to contemplate it, because that makes it less terrifying and exotic. It focuses our lives.
“I’m not afraid of death,” she told me, because as a Catholic Christian I know that my home is with Jesus in Heaven forever. So I’m not afraid of death in that sense, because death means that I get to go home and see Jesus face to face. I’ve been blessed with some amazing priests in my life who have been so generous in giving their time in counseling me during near-death moments and in giving me the sacraments. I feel at peace with death.
Emily had so much pain but didn’t feel she was a victim. She believed that not only is no one entitled to a life without suffering but that the Creator of the universe makes use of every bit of our efforts, sacrifices, and, yes, sufferings. She believed there was a purpose in her having CF. God “created me for a reason.” she said. “And CF is part of how he created me — so it’s part of my reason for existing. It’s part of my vocation.”
January 8, 2024
"That is All" (A Memorial Tribute)
Emily was a FORCE: She entered a room talking—loudly—with a big smile and an enthusiasm that was so palpable it felt like it could knock you down. She did not do things by halves. Her Goodreads challenge numbers were always insane. She had read 241 books of her 245 book goal this year; she would have easily reached it had she not been hospitalized. She re-read all of “Jane”—she was always on a first name only basis with this favorite author—every year, but her tastes ran the gamut from theological treatises to cookbooks to the Cormoran Strike books and the Isabel Dalhousie series (which she turned me on to) to Virginia Woolf and DH Lawrence. She took up knitting and was constantly on the lookout for yarn shops, where she bought piles of yarn to make into scarves for friends, beautiful shawls for herself and blankets for her beloved nieces and goddaughter. She was a ferociously loyal friend; I feel like I know a lot of her friends myself because of her Facebook posts celebrating the births and milestones of their children and asking for prayers for them in difficult times. She was a doting aunt and godmother—her Facebook feed is crammed with photos of Maddie and Hailey and Patty. She HATED grammar mistakes and often started Facebook posts with an exasperated “PEOPLE!” before taking up whatever the latest offense was and finishing with “That is all.” (I was often tempted to sign our Christmas card “The Becker’s” just to get a rise out of her.)
She traveled to Los Angeles and was a contestant on Jeopardy. She called her condo Orchard House after Louisa May Alcott’s home, and made it a cozy refuge where she would enjoy fancy tea in beautiful teacups. We shared an obsession for Princess Kate—our last text conversation was about her dress to the Royal Variety Show earlier in December (I liked it but Emily wasn’t a fan of the shoulder pads). She loved art, and on a visit to NYC taught me to appreciate (or at least not rush past) all the medieval Madonnas at the Met Museum. She loved opera and singing and performing in musicals, and somehow continued to even when the drugs that preserved her life destroyed her hearing. (I saw a lovely memorial post this morning from her local community theater group filled with fun photos of her in their productions—she would have loved that!) She loved to travel, which was a challenge for her, but was able to go on several trips to Duck, NC in the Outer Banks, to Colorado to see her beloved sister and her family, to colonial Williamsburg, to Houston to see her cousins and goddaughter, and of course to Pittsburgh. And this year she made her first transatlantic flight, for a week-long holiday in Edinburgh, Scotland—a dream come true that dominated her blog posts for weeks.
Emily was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at 11—a late age that was itself a testament to her toughness; she didn’t like to admit to being sick. The drugs that have vastly improved the prognosis for CF patients in recent years came a little too late for her, and by 2005 she was near death. A double lung transplant in July of that year—still a relatively new and dangerous procedure at that time—saved her life and made her a passionate advocate for organ donation. She never forgot to thank Suzanne, her donor, each year on the anniversary of her transplant, and she would have been thrilled to know that even after so many years of medical struggles, she was able to donate some of her own organs. She outlived her original life expectancy by 11 years, but her death still caught me by surprise; I always thought of her as the unsinkable Molly Brown, someone whose sheer force of will and personality was unquenchable, but she herself was very aware of her mortality. One of her proudest accomplishments was the acceptance and publication of her book, “Living Memento Mori,” that crackles with wit and brio and her tremendous Catholic faith. She was funny—she called the hospital that she spent so much time in throughout her life “the resort.” Her deadpan last Facebook post—“ICYMI, I’m at the resort with pneumonia for Christmas. Not sure when I’ll be sprung”—was typical of the humorous way she dealt with the challenges that shaped her life. Sadly for me and all the family and friends who loved her, it was not to be, but I know that on the last day of a year that was one of the most adventure-rich of her life she was indeed sprung to the resort she strived her whole life to achieve. And so on this first day of 2024, as you are making your New Year’s resolutions, I have a challenge for you: PEOPLE! Live every day of this new year, no matter what it brings, with exuberance and joy like Emily did. That is all.
- Memorial tribute by Emily’s loving Aunt Mary
November 30, 2023
The Feast of St. Andrew
The Relic Shrine of St. Andrew at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh
Happy Feast of St. Andrew! This year I’m really celebrating this feast since I actually got to hang out with him when I was in Edinburgh. Let’s talk about his relics, prayers, and FOOD…
The relics of St. Andrew. On the right is a portion of St. Andrew’s shoulder.
The relics actually have an interesting story: (From the shrine’s website)
The bones of the martyred Saint were buried in Patras and remained there until 357 AD, when most were removed to Constantinople at the command of the emperor Constantine. From this time devotion to St Andrew spread throughout the western Church. In the eastern Church St Andrew also gained a devoted following, becoming the patron saint of both Greece and Russia.
In 1204, French and Venetian Crusaders sacked Constantinople. The French removed many relics (including the Shroud), to Western Europe. To protect the relics of the Apostle, Cardinal Peter of Capua, the Papal Legate to the East, brought the body of St Andrew to his home town, Amalfi, in southern Italy. …
Legend has it that relics of St Andrew were brought to Scotland by St Rule from Patras. What probably happened was that the relics were brought from Rome by St Augustine in 597AD as part of his great mission to bring the Word to the Anglo-Saxons. In 732 they were brought from Hexham to Fife by Bishop Acca, who was seeking asylum with the Pictish King Oengus (Angus). The relics were held at Kilrymont, which was later renamed St Andrews. From this time, the remains of the first-called Apostle became a major focus of European pilgrimage, second only to Compostella. Numbers coming to venerate the relics of the Saint grew quickly.
In the 11th century St Margaret, Queen of Scotland, endowed a ferry service across the river Forth and hostels, at North and South Queensferry, for pilgrims. The relics were initially housed in St Rule’s Church and eventually in the great medieval Cathedral of St Andrews. Twice a year the relics were carried in procession around the town. Masters and scholars from the colleges, Greyfriars, Blackfriars and Augustinian canons of the metropolitan church and trade guilds all participated. Cathedral and church bells rang and in the evening there were bonfires and fireworks
Through the dark ages, and medieval period of Scottish history, the Apostle played a major role in the creation and defining of the Scottish nation. It was commonly believed that the Apostle Andrew had chosen the Scottish people to care for and honour his relics. And so the patron saint, the Saltire flag, the relics and the See of St Andrew became crucial symbols of nationhood.
On 14 June 1559 the interior of St Andrews Cathedral, including the shrine and relics, was destroyed by reformers who had accompanied John Knox to the city.
The three centuries that followed were difficult for Catholicism in Scotland. Catholic worship was outlawed. The traditions were kept alive in a few outlying glens and islands. Catholics in cities and towns had to rely on visiting priests, trained overseas. Priests like the Jesuit martyr St John Ogilvie operated underground and were put to death if discovered.
It wasn’t until 1878, when the Catholic hierarchy in Scotland was restored, that the shrine was re-created after Edinburgh had been named the Metropolitan See of Scotland. (ie, the chief diocese of Scotland) Originally housing the portion of St. Andrew’s shoulder, in 1969 Pope Paul VI gave another relic to the newly created Scottish cardinal, Gordon Joseph Gray—the first Scottish cardinal in 400 years!
Both relics are now placed in the altar as you see above, in reliquaries. In May 1982, Pope St. John Paul II visited the shrine.
One of my favorite Advent devotions is the St. Andrew novena, which begins today and ends on Christmas Eve. The novena consists of saying this prayer 15 times a day:
Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires, [here mention your request] through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen.
Unlike a lot of novenas, this one isn’t prayers for St. Andrew’s intercession; it just starts on his feast day, which is usually in the beginning of Advent (not this year!) .
There is also this prayer of St. Andrew:
O good Cross,
Made beautiful by the body of The Lord:
Long have I desired you,
Ardently have I loved you,
Unceasingly have I sought you out;
And now you are ready for my eager soul.
Receive me from among men and restore me to my Master,
So that He — who by means of You, in dying redeemed me —
May receive me. Amen.
If you’re looking for some Scottish recipes, here are some to try. I personally love to make Cock-A-Leekie soup, Scotch broth, and shortbread.
If, like me, you’re an Outlander fan, then definitely check out the Outlander Cookbooks, Vol. 1 and 2!* (These would make great Christmas gifts as well.)
November 24, 2023
Black Friday/Cyber Monday Book Sale at Ave Maria Press!
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you had a great day with your family/friends and lots of food and fun.
‘Tis the season for sales, and I know you’ve been bombarded with the emails (I get them too!), but I want to let you know about Ave Maria Press’s Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale!
Use the code BFCM23 to get 30% off and free shipping through Monday, November 27! If you want to do your book shopping somewhere other than Amazon, this is a great way to do it and support Catholic publishing and Catholic authors, while saving money!
Just click on any image in this post to go to my book’s page on the Ave Maria Press website and enter the code BFCM23 at checkout to get the deal! (Or, here’s another link).
Happy shopping!
November 15, 2023
A really big yarn along!
Hanks of yarn at Ginger Twist Studios in Edinburgh
So I owe you a HUGE yarn along, featuring Edinburgh yarn! So let’s get cracking.
The first thing I’m making is a Saturday Shrug:
There are a TON of ways to make this. In the shop, the lace weight yarn (the yarn at the bottom in the above photo) was used to make thin stripes:
I decided to do it with both yarns held together:
isn’t it pretty?
This is pure comfort knitting. If you want to use these yarns (which I recommend!), they are Ginger’s Cumulus Humilis Aran and Leading Lady Lace. Jess, the lovely shop owner, ships to the USA!
The other yarns I got from her shop are:
Masham Mayhem in Lallybroch, Hocus Pocus, and Au Naturel, which will be used to make a Drachenfels shawl.
I HAD TO (yes, had to) grab two skeins of the yarn on the left (above)—that color! And the name—Voyager is the title of the third Outlander novel. This is Yakety-Yak 4 ply, which is merino, yak, and silk. It’s so squishy! I haven’t decided on a project for this yet….any suggestions?
Another thing I did was purchase one of the mystery bags they sell. Once I was home, I knew I wanted more yarn (space constraints limited me!), so thought this was a great way to get a mix of gorgeous yarns. Jess will send you yarns based on one word you give her, and she’ll also send patterns! I mean how fun is that?
I got:
Victoria DK in Breakfast with Ginger (below) and the pattern BRU by Amanda B. Collins
Halo Honey Aran (currently unavailable!) in Ginger, a lovely warm ginger (obviously) red color, with the pattern Little Squirrel Socks by Tin Can Knits. This has inspired me to conquer socks! Halo Honey is 100% British Wensleydale Wool and I have no doubt it will make wonderfully cozy socks. (Or I could use it for something else but I REALLY want to try a pair of baby socks with it, especially since I have many babies and toddlers in my life!)
Finally I received the Hipster Hat pattern by Alexa Ludeman, the co-founder of Tin Can Kits. This also comes in a variety of sizes, so….baby hats! :-D And the yarn, St. Magnus DK in Gold, will definitely make for a happy hat!
So that is the Great Scotland Yarn Round Up! I am really exited to use all of these beautiful yarns!
November 14, 2023
Kid update!
So the biggest news is that Maddie is going to be a big sister! Her baby brother is due in April, and we are all very excited, especially since this will be my parents’ first grandson and my first nephew!
Halloween was exciting….it was Hailey’s first Halloween and she was Minnie Mouse!
I’d love to see this face at the door.
And right before Halloween, Miss Hailey started walking!
Maddie is a veteran trick-or-treater now but this year she helped mom pass out candy. The whole family got into the act and were….the Flintstones!
Maddie’s other grandpa calls her “Pebbles” because of the way she wears her hair, so….halloween inspiration.
“All the candy is for MEEEEEE!”
Maddie has also been taking swimming lessons and loves them! My parents went to visit a few weeks ago and they had fun taking Maddie to the parks, the zoo, and sharing Maddie’s Miss Rachel obsession (which Hailey also shares). Maddie also loves rubber ducks!
Down south, Patty was Cinderella.
Cinderella with a banana and a piece of pizza.
It was cold for Texas trick or treat, so thankfully Cinderella could wear a fleece under her gown.
And baby Maggie got into the act as a giraffe.
Hailey, like I said above, is walking and also babbling up a storm. Maddie is getting a “big girl room” and knows where “mommy’s baby” is, and also enjoys playing with her baby doll as practice for being a big sister.
I also have yarn for the new baby’s blanket!
For my readers who like Yarn Alongs, there is a big one coming this week—stay tuned!
Also keep your eyes peeled for my signed book special!
November 1, 2023
Happy Hallowtide! (We're back!)
Image from Baritus Catholic
We’re BACK, y’all!
I know I took a long hiatus post-Scotland! But now I’m back with things to write about and talk about, starting with today’s Solemnity!
(It’s also a Holy Day of Obligation, so Catholics, go to Mass today!)
The three days we’re currently in—October 31, November 1, and November 2—used to be call “Hallowtide”, “hallow” meaning “to make or set apart as holy.” All Hallow’s Eve (ie, the day before All Saints’ Day, saints being “set apart” and "holy”) was contracted in “Halloween”. The Church’s actual celebration of the day begins the night before.
All Saints’ Day is a Solemnity—the highest type of celebration in the Church calendar—where we celebrate the saints (who are all people in heaven, not just the canonized saints), and tomorrow (November 2) is All Souls’ Day, where we remember and pray for those who have died. It’s a good idea to write a list of your own friends and family members who have died and pray for those people during the month!
The other thing we can do in November (really all the time, but especially in this month, where we think about the holy souls) is think about our own death.
I know, not exactly breakfast conversation. But—we’re all going to die. And knowing that we’re going to die informs how we live.
So, yes, it’s a great month for my book! (Support your local Catholic authors!)
If you would like a signed copy (for $20, including a prayer card and bookmark!), you can get one by emailing me!
If my little book can help you live more intentionally pointed toward God and help you remember that “this world’s our ship and not our home” (St. Therese), then I’ll have done my job.
I’ll leave you with this quote from Pope Benedict XVI:
The solemnity of All Saints is, in the deepest sense, a celebration of our hope. Christians are people who affirm the reality of God and count on it. This is what it means to believe. Likewise, it can be affirmed with good reason that Christians are people who accept God’s promises, build on them, and rely on them. In other words, they hope. Hope is the other side of the coin of faith…
The creeping illness of our time is hopelessness. It seems to take root everywhere….
Beneath the surface of today’s feast, a powerful cry is perceptible: “You are expected! Definitively and forever, with the guarantee that your expectations will be fulfilled, after perhaps having carried some burdens for a long time and having asked yourself whether it all had any meaning.” The cry of hope and encouragement from the finish line reaches those who are still on the journey. It is a cry made up of many voices; a cry that causes hope to dawn: hoping with assurance and trust, hoping in a community and in a brotherhood that knows no disturbance, because the one calling is God.
September 25, 2023
Scotland: How I planned the trip
Market Street, Edinburgh
How did I even decide on Edinburgh?
Well, it was because of the Queen’s funeral, funny enough. We were watching the procession to St. Giles on TV (My parents and I) and we all thought, wow, that’s a pretty city! And we are Scottish, on my mother’s side. Dad also said that the city looked very “doable” for a first European visit, and Edinburgh is less expensive than London (true story).
So that’s how Edinburgh was selected.
The first thing I had to figure out was when to go to Edinburgh.
I knew I didn’t want to go in August—that’s festival season, and prices are insane, and the city is also insanely crowed. No, thank you. I knew I didn’t want to go in the winter or late fall, because it would be quite dark (remember how far north Edinburgh is—think Moscow, Copenhagen, southern Sweden, etc.). That left spring and early and late summer. September seemed liked a good time to me, and it was a good time. It wasn’t really crowded, prices were reasonable, and we could get around the city without being mobbed by tourists. The weather was also amazing—quite unusually, according to locals!—but the average temperatures are around the low to mid 60s, which is comfortable for me, personally. (It was in the low 70s for most of our trip.)
As I wrote in my accessibility post, choosing a hotel required two things: elevators and air conditioning. I knew I wanted to be on the Royal Mile, but not in a chain hotel (ie, a Hilton) if possible. The Scotsman Hotel checked all the boxes. If you want to book, book direct on their website, where they have lots of deals and offers! We stayed in a City View Feature Suite. We also added breakfast to our bill and had breakfast at the hotel every day. (They are not paying me to say any of this, btw.)
The reason for the suite? One, I had heard about the smallness of European hotel rooms. Two, I love Amilia and she loves me, but extra space is always good. This room was much bigger than we anticipated!
City view, check.
Flight:
There are no direct flights to Edinburgh from Columbus, so I narrowed it down to two carriers that I’ve flown and like—Delta and United. Delta won, because they routed us through Boston (which I like better than the NYC airports that United was going to use), and it was much cheaper for some reason, even in Delta Comfort (which is what we booked). With Delta Comfort you get more legroom, more food, and a free checked bag. Our flight was from Columbus to Boston to Edinburgh Airport (EDI), and the same on the way back. There were also a variety of times to choose from, which was nice.
Both the flight and the room were refundable. That was important to us! Yes, this meant we paid more, but having the peace of mind that the refundable prices gave us was worth it.
Where to go, what to see:
I used the Visit Scotland site extensively. Just poking around will give you a bunch of ideas of where to go, what to see, and what to eat. There are only a few things I’m not allowed to eat, and neither of us had food allergies or intolerances, which made our food planning easy. Both of us like tea, so afternoon teas were very often our lunches, because, as you saw, you get a lot of food in an afternoon tea!
Food, glorious food.
Most people eat dinner later in Edinburgh, but some places offered early deals, like Howie’s on Victoria Street.
I made reservations via Open Table before we left. I really don’t like hemming and hawing around food choices, and being diabetic I know that I have to eat at certain times or the body gets CRANKY. So reservations were really helpful. It was also really easy to cancel if needed (which we did the first night, since I was so tired!)
Places where we ate:
Ensign Ewart Pub on the Royal Mile
The Grand Cafe, Scotsman Hotel (afternoon tea and lunch)
Cafe at the Palace (of Holyroodhouse)
Mimi’s Bakehouse (don’t take reservations but we popped in several times for drinks and snacks)
Royal Deck Tearoom, Britannia (they don’t take reservations so if you want to eat there, head there first when you get on the yacht!)
Some afternoon teas require pre-booking: the Grand Cafe, the Cafe at the Palace, and Eteaket all needed to be pre-booked (and in the case of the Grand Cafe, pre-paid).
Booking Attractions:
We did this months out, so that we one, saved money, and two, had things booked and pre-paid, so we could spread out the cost of the trip. Britannia, Edinburgh Castle, and the Palace of Holyroodhouse were pre-booked. The National Gallery, and all the National Museums, are free in Scotland and don’t require any advance booking.
Shopping:
Edinburgh is famous for its bookstores, so I made a list of stores for us to check out. We only ended up visiting two—Waterstones and Golden Hare Books. I also knew I wanted to visit at least one yarn shop, which was Ginger Twist Studio. If you like to shop, Edinburgh will not disappoint you.
Making it all work:
On the itinerary, there was generally what I called a big “rock” every day—one “big” thing we were doing, along with any meal reservations. This worked well and gave us a lot of free time; we didn’t feel like we were being rushed around to get to places or do things, but ensured we saw and did everything we wanted. The only things that changed from the itinerary were cancelling dinner the first night, and having to scramble for dinner on Sunday night because the hotel cafe was booked (I got room service and Amilia went out to find some food).
