Claudia's Tombstone

Math (both stats and trig) last night was hard. After class I had trig homework and was up till 1 am. This moring at six we all got up and went to Oakland for my wife's real estate exam. (She doesn't hink she passed.) While she was taking the test, the little boy and I ate at Mama's on the corner of Broadway and 41st. (For my readers in sunny Mexico, there is Mama's in Cabo San Lucas now, so don't be envious anymore of your amigos nortenos.) Yum! Then we had some time to kill. I don't really know Oakland so we just drove around. The area around Lake Merrit is pretty. Eventually, we wound up in the Piedmont District. I wrote about the Piedmont back in the summer so I won't go into it again. But the thing that is neat is that I ran across the cemetary. (I had forgottent that it is just at the end of Piedmont Ave.) Well, since I had some time I thought I would stop by and pray for my my co-parishoner, Claudia (Mmmm. I wonder if it is okay to talk about reposed Orthodox in the past tense.) and ask her to pray for Fr. Victor, too. We eventually found the stone, the little boy and I. As I was praying he wandered off. When I was through I saw him about 50 yards away kneeling at a little Christmas tree. The little Christmas tree was left on the fresh grave of a seven year old boy named Arthur. There was no tombstone, just the christmas tree, a piece of cardboard with the dates and name, and a picture (taped to a rock) of a little boy in a wheel chair. I prayed for Arthur and his family, too.