By Ray Cardello for April 20, 2025, Season 31 / Post 39

Growing up, Easter was always a huge celebration in our home, blending religion and tradition. I grew up in a house with multiple ethnic influences, including Germany and Scotland, and the strongest being Italy. My Italian grandparents lived upstairs from us, central to all holiday traditions. Christmas was big but could not match the solemnity and joy of Easter. Easter celebration started on Palm Sunday, as we visited my father’s aunts and uncles after mass to exchange palms. This was an all day event with a family meal squeezed in. Papa always sat at the head of the table in his finest suit and would bless the family with holy water using the new palms to spread the water around the table. Next was Holy Thursday, when we visited seven churches in Lawrence, culminating at our home church, Holy Rosary, where my father usually participated in the washing of the feet. Of course, Good Friday was a somber day, and we were expected to remain silent from noon to three to recognize the time it took for Jesus to die on the cross. And then there was Easter Sunday.

We all dressed in our Sunday best and then off to the church, which had been darkened, with all of the statues covered with purple cloth for Lent. No flowers adorned the church during Lent. Today, it was awakened with bright lights and Easter Lilies filling the altar. Easter Sunday is the pinnacle of the Christian calendar. An Easter feast on Sunday afternoon completed the day and celebration. These traditions have faded away as the family changed. Grandparents and parents, even siblings, pass, and kids marry and move on. As the family becomes more homogenous, the traditions are left behind, which is sad but inevitable. But the reason for the day will always be enough for a celebration.

I am especially thankful and joyous this Easter Season. Having been diagnosed with Esophageal cancer in January, I was looking at best at a life changed forever. The fear of surviving this type of cancer was real, and the thoughts of living without an esophagus were uneasy for both Shay and me to cope with. But I had turned my life over to God at the moment we heard the words, and He has protected and guided us along this odyssey. It has been a roller coaster of news and emotions, but even the setbacks, like the aborted esophagectomy, have turned into new paths and better outcomes. God has blessed me and answered all of our prayers, and there have been so many, near and far, sending thoughts of encouragement and prayers. We are not done yet, but hopefully, we are one procedure away from ringing the bell. I owe so many of you for your help, but most of all, especially on the holiest of days, on this Easter Sunday, I give thanks to God in Heaven, who controls the universe, for giving me a second act. Whatever He has in store for me and whatever it is to do, I hope I live my life in a manner that glorifies Him and is worthy of his love and grace. God is good, and life is beautiful. We thank God today, knowing Christ, His only son, has risen to save us all.

Thank you for stopping by. God Bless and Keep You. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Ray