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Dear Cecil,
Hope all is well with yourself, Beatrice, Desmond and little Fabian. Give a hug to the two brats from me. How's it going with the flower business? I have been distributing your EXPRESSIONS business cards to every Goan I meet. But unfortunately, although they take great pride in being Goan, they can't recollect any loved ones in Goa!
Toronto is such a beautiful city and your cousins now even trust me to drive their car unaccompanied, so I am seeing the city on my own. The other day I went up to a local Christian bookstore, like our St. Paul's in Panjim, and saw a 'Honk If You Love Jesus' bumper sticker.
I was feeling particularly sassy that day because I had just come from a thrilling lunch by the Toronto Aldonese Association (none of who have ever been to Aldona!), followed by a thunderous prayer meeting, so I bought the sticker and put in on my bumper.
I was stopped at a red light at a busy intersection, just lost in thought about the Lord and how good He is and I didn't notice that the light had changed. It is a good thing someone else loves Jesus because if he hadn't honked, I'd never have noticed. I fingered the St. Francis Xavier scapular round my neck and knew that all was well in the world.
I found that LOTS of people love Jesus. Why, while I was sitting there, the guy behind started honking like crazy, and when he leaned out of his window and screamed, "for the love of God, GO! GO!" What an exuberant cheerleader he was for Jesus.
Everyone started honking! I just leaned out of my window and started waving and smiling at all these loving people.
I even honked my horn a few times to share in the love. There must have been a fellow Goan back there because I heard him yelling something about a 'sunny beach' or was it 'funny beach'?...
I saw another guy waving in a funny way with only his middle finger stuck up in the air. When I asked your cousin Bonny's son, Mikhail, in the back seat what that meant, he said that it was probably a Red Indian good luck sign or something.
Well, I've never met any Red Indian, so I leaned out the window and gave him the good luck sign back. Mikhail burst out laughing, why even he was enjoying this religious experience.
A couple of the people were so caught up in the joy of the moment that they got out of their cars and started walking towards me. I bet they wanted to pray or ask where they could get a Menin Jezu of Colva wrist-scapular like I had on my hand, but this is when I noticed the light had changed. So, I waved to all my sisters and brothers grinning, and drove on through the intersection.
I noticed I was the only car that got through the intersection before the light changed again and I felt kind of sad that I had to leave them after all the love we had shared, so I slowed the car down, leaned out of the window and gave them all the Red Indian good luck sign one last time as I
drove away.
Praise the Lord for such wonderful folks! I miss Amchem Goem but I also love the friendly people in Toronto!
Will write again next week.
Your beloved Perpet Aunty
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