After 40 years of marriage and service in the Catholic

After 40 years of marriage and service in the Catholic Church as a deacon for the past five years, leaving the diaconate was the last thing on my mind. The Woman of the Dawn, also known as Jane Anderson Robertson, was born in 1812 on a trading post on the Minnesota River and lived 92 years in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Canada and South Dakota. In 1889, a young woman named Nancy Hamilton came with “her” family to Fairmount, Indiana, and apparently had the gift of prophecy, reading poetry that foretold impending horrible deaths. Have you ever experienced a fateful event? When Linda Roose learned that “her” youngest son, Joshua, had been shot in the head and was unlikely to survive the night, “her” world came crashing down. Rick, a local reporter, wanted to interview me about my experience in the diaconate and how I came to this decision. The fact that I am a deacon in the Catholic Church reinforced this process. Cayden has the perfect life. He has two beautiful girls, Cassie, age five, and Callie, age three, who mean everything to him. He was born in 1939 on a small farm in rural New York State and graduated from high school in Afton, New York, in 1957. Tom is a retired systems engineer, magician, teacher and former deacon in the Catholic Church. Life has been good – wife, home, children, grandchildren, health, retirement, and an extraordinary ministry. I hope that glimmers of hope, faith, love and peace are breaking through the clouds for you as well. But through them the glimmers of hope, faith, love and peace will find their way. I knew this rule, but after two years of reflection, I could never make up my mind. The grief for my wife was hard enough, but in the case of suicide, the grieving process was even more intense. The Catholic Church spoke out unequivocally.