Saint Lucy, Santa Lucia, more properly, has trouble sometimes keeping track of all the places and institutions named after her. She’s not alone in that, of course, among the saints, Christian and otherwise, given the popularity among mortals of doing that even when the naming has little to do with the stories of the saints themselves. She’s reflected, in recent years that it is rather like “Likes” on social media. Naturally, those among the ranks of the Canonized are not supposed to be so worldly as to indulge in Pride or Jealousy about such things, but there are those whose characters fall a bit short of the reputations that got them there. She had been a little bewildered at first when the home for girls raised by wolves had been named for her, wolves, literal ones anyway, not having had a role in her story. But, the town was named after her and the nuns were devotees, so it did make sense. She is quite fond of the girls and has grown to appreciate their wolf families for the unconditional love and freedom (freedom her own relatives had tried to deny her) they gave. She also likes that the nuns do try so hard to teach the girls to fit into human society without crushing their spirits. So, she is happy to accept the honor (not that she could actually refuse it) of the naming. “Who knows,” she thinks sometimes, “maybe one or two of those girls will turn out saintly and join me here someday. That would be so sweet.”

Bob Wertzler is retired from almost twenty years in the mental health field in California and Arizona. There are times the title, “Recovering Therapist”, seems to fit. In 2006 he retired to move to Western North Carolina to help and become primary care giver for his father who had developed Dementia. Before all that, there was work at various times as a soldier (US Army 1967-70), community organizer, cab driver, welfare case worker, wooden toy maker, carpenter, warehouse worker, and other things. He relates to a line in a Grateful Dead song, “What a long, strange trip its been.”