By Alyssa Bormes

“A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death, than the day of birth.” ~ Ecclesiastes 7:1

Well—it feels like it’s time to talk about me again. In order to do that, I’m going to speak about my grandfathers. It turns out that my grandmother decided my name for my parents; she wanted to name me after my grandfather who had just died the year before, but to use his mother’s name.

My mom wanted to please my grandma, but she wanted a different name than my great-grandma’s name. She searched a baby name book and realized she could name me after both of my grandfathers directly—Alyssa—for Alfred and Aloysius. She called my grandmother with the news, which Grandma loved; so, my name is not Matilda.

It turns out that Saturday is a feast day in two ways for me. It happens to be my sister Karla’s birthday, and it is the feast day of St. Aloysius.

I was doing a little research on Aloysius; his first two words were Jesus and Mary. Many years back, I asked my mom what my first words were. I was the eighth child, and let’s just say my baby book is not quite as filled out as my older siblings, so no first words recorded.

Again, after looking at my nearly blank baby book, I asked my mom what my first words were. She was probably folding laundry, cooking, vacuuming, and helping another kid with homework when I asked her, and she had that little bit overwhelmed tone when she said, “I don’t know. Probably ‘no,’ or something.”

I was stunned, “How could you forget?”

She laughed, “You’re kidding—there are eight of you!”

Well—I’m pretty sure that if my first words were Jesus and Mary she would have remembered. But ‘no’ is a perfectly good first word too—or that’s what I tell myself.

Of course, it is not so much about first words as the last words.

St. Aloysius’ last word was Jesus. Not bad.

For the past couple of decades, I have known what I want my last words to be. A priest friend spoke of a Carmelite nun whose bedside he was at as she died. I have chosen her last words as my own, and I would say they are fairly close to those of my patron Aloysius. It might just be a few words at the end, but I want to make them good ones. My last words, God willing, will be, “Give me Jesus!”

Prayer:

Give me Jesus!

Call to Action:

Come up with your own last words, and say them every night before you go to sleep… just in case.

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