Well, one half of 2025 is suddenly behind us. I remember my grandmother and mother complain, in their old age, about how time passed by so slowly. I don’t do one tenth of what I used to do, and time seems to just flash by. Sometimes I wonder if I have Alzheimer’s disease and that the day’s work, rest and play just melt away in my brain.
Our latest news is not a happy story. About 21 or 22 years ago, a little girl came to us, orphaned by parents who died from the effects of AIDS, and this dirty, malnourished little thing had caught AIDS. She was aware she did not look clean and healthy like most of our kids who were infected. She complained to me and I assured her that when she got cleaned up and took her medicine, she would someday be crowned “Miss Thailand”. She was delighted and did fatten up and recover from the effects of the virus. She always called herself Miss Thailand when talking to me. She graduated, got married and then stopped taking her ARV medicine, despite warnings from us. About 6 months ago, she came back to Sarnelli House, thin and very sick. The recurrence of AIDS brought along TB of the lymph glands in the neck, which proved untreatable. She died June 8.
At Sarnelli House, before the teenagers start college or University, we have seminars for them on the importance of taking the ARV medicine faithfully. But some of them stop taking the medicine and come back to be cured, or die. One girl stopped taking her medicines THREE times, costing us nearly $10,000. She has finally learned her lesson, and now works for the Good Shepherd nuns in Nongkhai, who run a clinic/home for the abandoned old, sick and poor.
Other than that, repairs continue, especially to the kitchen at Sarnelli House and additions of roof and sidewalk at the Sharon Houminer House. We are waiting to take in a little guy who is paralyzed. The house can take in a total of ten children.
On July 12, relatives, friends and neighbors will gather and Jim and Gloria Twohig’s machinery shed for a Mass and fund raiser for Sarnelli House. My cousin Fr. Jim Shea, who is celebrating 60 years of ordination, will preside at the Mass. Fr. Jim made every effort to help me fundraise while on home leave for the past 59 years I have been in Thailand. I am grateful for these people, and all the folks who have helped make Sarnelli House a reality. May you be blessed and rewarded.
Gratefully,
Fr. Mike Shea
