Please don’t get me wrong – I mean no disrespect for the deceased, but we have begun praying for “Sister Flintstone.”

In our Activity Department, here at St. Anne’s, we were just finishing up “Bedrock Days,” a week with Flintstone-themed activities. This even included a dance, complete with costumes and pterodactyl drumsticks (pretzel logs covered in caramel and cocoa pebbles cereal). I had a little part in the fun, printing Flintstones pictures for them and helping recruit dance attendance by playing “Meet the Flintstones” over our PA system, etc.

We received an email from Germany late last week with the obituary for Sister Wilma. (Upon receiving such an email, we pray for the deceased for one week, using Psalm 130 followed by a special prayer.)

Most often, the names are not familiar ones for us Americans since the Sisters are from Germany and Brazil, mostly. It can be helpful, if we want to remember who we’re praying for, to use little cognitive tricks to jar the memory.

Having read that a Sr. Wilma had died, and having just enjoyed a pterodactyl drummy myself, I spontaneously mentioned to Sr. Elaine: “We’ll have to pray for Sr. Flinstone now.”

[Please rest assured, we don’t call her “Sr. Flintstone” in chapel, but revert back to her proper name.]