Those of you who know me well know that I am obsessive over punctuality. Maybe it comes from the fact that early in our marriage we had to attend military events which required that you arrive early and ride around the block until the exact minute to make your entrance. Or maybe I was just born that way, I can't remember. I do know that it has been an on going issue between you know who and me since 1968.
Well, today, the last of my English classes, I had a senior moment,or at least I hope that's all it was, bless my heart. I arrived 45minutes early as usual, but somehow convinced myself that the first class got out at 10. I kept the first class until 9:45, thinking I was letting them out early. They did sort of bolt for the door, seeing as they were due back at work, but it all went right over my head. I then took the left over goodies I had brought for them down to my friend the coffee lady and we and several others had a little party there. At 10:10. I started back to the classroom only to be met by Audrone who was looking for me. I was 10 minutes late for my second class. but in my mind, I was 20 minutes early.
I am blaming it on the fact that I was up late cooking goodies to take to class and then did not sleep well. Plus there is that whole cold water thing. Or maybe I'm just getting doty.
After class Daiva drove me to Kretinga, a nearby city where Del was having his conference. We had been invited to visit a church and Franciscan monastary from 1600. I had not known how old it was and on the drive, I pointed out a church to Daiva and commented how old and beautiful it was. She said that it was not very old, only 200 years, she thought. Perspective is everything, isn't it?
We were met at the church by a friar who had spent some years in the US as a missionary in Florida. If I understood it all, some of the younger priests had been sent before WW2 to the US and Canada to protect them from the Germans and they have maintained a presence in several places, including Kennebunkport, Maine. In gratitude for the protection they received, the Order continues to send priests and friars to the US to help out now that there is such a shortage of priests. This young man, who seemed in his late 40's or early fifties, had the responsibility of transfering the monastary, room by room, back into a true monastary after the second independence in 1991.
The church, The church of the Annunciation, had amazing carved doors, that were carved in 1600 and featured the coat of arms and carved faces of the family who established the church. In both those carvings and in portraits inside the church, the man was quite handsome, the woman, not so much. He looked rather like Donald Sutherland in beautifully trimmed beard and mustache. I'm guessing that either the artists made him handsome whether he was or not because he was paying the bill, or her daddy had a boatload of money.
We had a full tour of the church, including the cript. Several members of the founding family were buried there. The woman's coffin was rather ornate, but the men's were plain. The friar joked that it was Bibical that women's clothing, should cost more than men's because at the time of Adam and Eve's being cast from the Garden of Eden, it took only one leaf to clothe Adam but three for Eve. Barumpbum!
About 20 paintings on wood of martyrs from 1600 had been restored. The carving around each painting had had 7 coats of paint. It took 5 rears for the restoration. Some additional paintings had been under the floors during Soviet times and were not restored. The paint was removed from the carving and the wood worms killed, but it was felt that the portraits should be left untouched.
The friar spoke briefly of the mass killing of the Jews. Many were herded into the synagogue and burned. In the process, half the city was destroyed by fire. The Germans arrived June 24 and all the Jews were killed by August. We googled when we got home, of course, and learned that 64 of 77 businesses in the city and 18 of 26 factories were owned by Jews before the war. You might want to read more about it, but it is horrible, as so much of that time was.
On a lighter note. As we were walking up to the door of the church, we saw a long haired, skruffy looking young guy in long plaid shorts and t shirt going in ahead of us. You guessed it. A few minutes later we saw him in his robes, if that is the proper name.
I didn't take any pictures, thinking it would be disrespectful, but a librarian who is such an active member that she has a key to the church, did take some. I think she will send them to us in a day or two. It truly was a special opportunity that came because we met one of the friars at that all night reading event at the public library.
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