<p>My husband Francis died on January 3, 2010. During the previous three months and ten days after we learned he had bone cancer, we shared unforgettable experiences. I communicated many of these in my emails to family and friends, bringing them along with us during our passage into the unknown - through his hospice at home to his death. In September, 2010, I began rereading the letters I had begun writing in September, 2009. Then, two books of poetry given to me by a friend, sparked something new in my life. The books were Donald Hall s The Painted Bed and Without, in which he laments the death of his wife, Jane Kenyon, also a poet. Fresh from revisiting and reliving Francis and my experiences, and with the example of a grief-stricken poet to encourage me - poems started coming. The first one sets the scene: I was a nun and you, a priest.</p>

Sing to Me and I Will Hear You - The Poems

Elaine G. McGillicuddy

Caritas Communications

Sing to Me and I Will Hear You - The Love Story opens when a nun and a priest, each newly assigned to the same parish school in Waterville, Maine, in September, 1968, are introduced to one another. Sister Maureen, also a campus minister at Colby College during those heady days of anti-Vietnam-war fervor, discovers she has fallen in love with Father McGillicuddy, and, after deep soul searching, leaves the convent. Reclaiming her original name, Elaine takes the reader into her confidence by sharing the story of her two-year underground relationship with Father Francis. Together they follow the optional celibacy debates in Rome, await with some doubt, but yet with some hope, a Vatican decision in its favor. Such an outcome would have allowed Father Francis to become a married Catholic priest. But when that door is shut in December, 1971, Francis exodus ensues and the wedding date is set. Elaine and Francis married life is multi-faceted and spiritually rich. After an attempt to adopt a child falls through, they put their energies into peacemaking, founding a yoga center, transforming their lot into a demonstration site for permaculture, and, on Elaine s part, training for and leading Dances of Universal Peace. Their life together comes to a climax when in 2009, Francis cancer diagnosis leaves them only one hundred more days together. Deeply moved by the way Francis approached his own death, she celebrates his extraordinary patience, courage, and grace in dealing with pain and in facing the unknown. Francis does not directly use the expression of his namesake, Francis of Assisi, namely, Welcome Sister Death, but he goes out to meet her with the same attitude. And with love on his lips.

Sing to Me and I Will Hear You - A Love Story

David A. Gawlik

Sing to Me and I Will Hear You - New Poems is Elaine G. McGillicuddy's third book designated by the same main title, Sing to Me and I Will Hear You. In effect, it completes a Trilogy. The subtitles of the first two books the second one, a memoir were: The Poems and A Love Story. These were published, respectively, in 2012 and 2014.   This second book of poems has four sections in it: THE HELMSMAN STEERS, NEW IMPERATIVE, CURRENTS UNDERNEATH and RANGE OF GLORY S REACH. All three books were written since the death of her husband, Francis, in 2010, and so they share the author s journey after the death of a spouse.

Sing to Me and I Will Hear You - New Poems

Biographies & Memoirs

Memoirs

David Gawlik

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Elaine G. McGillicuddy. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Elaine G. McGillicuddy

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Elaine G. McGillicuddy. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Sing to Me and I Will Hear You - The Poems

Sing to Me and I Will Hear You - A Love Story

Sing to Me and I Will Hear You - New Poems