I believe it was 1970 or 1971, when I first met the Iorio Family. Marisa moved onto my street in Fords. Having come from a screwy family situation, I immediately felt like the house at 2 Webb Drive was a home-away-from-home for me. It represented good food, tough love, accountability and a welcomeness I had seldom felt before. Marisa and I quickly became best friends and we have many memories that we share. Mrs. Iorio made the very best birthday cakes in the world and I was privileged to have had her bake me one for several years in a row for my birthday. I remember how her world was blessed by the arrival of Madelyn (I still remember her birthday every year in my heart 5/7). Marisa and I spent so much time with "the baby" and I was always amused by how we had to tiptoe around the house when Madelyn was sleeping. When we wanted to enter the house, we had to tap on the window gently to be let it. I confess that I did not truly ever get that until so many years later, I had my first child who was a light sleeper.
I just looked through the pictures posted on this sight and the love that I remember seeing in her eyes as a child is still there as she is so obviously joy-filled while in the presence of her children and grandchildren.
I confess that I did love her and that I am very sad knowing that she is no longer on the same planet as I. I pray that you who are reading this, will find comfort in God's words as found in Philippians and in Isaiah. My own mom passed almost a year ago, and the only comfort that I had was the truth of scripture.
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7
"See, I will create a new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered,nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. "Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days,or an old man who does not live out his years; the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child; the one who fails to reach a hundred
will be considered accursed. They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree,so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands" excerpts from Isaiah 65.
