Early this morning, All Saints Day, my Aunt Molly McGreevy died after a long decline. Molly was my father’s sister, six years his junior in age. In many ways they were alike, especially in their ability to see and appreciate the humor and ridiculousness of life. In many other ways, they were wholly unalike–Molly was a die-hard liberal politically while my father was an equally die-hard conservative, as just one example.
Above all else, however, Molly loved and was loved by many, many people. She became an Episcopal priest at a time when the whole idea of women as priests was controversial and too often met with hostility within the Church. After being ordained, she worked tirelessly with AIDS patients at a time when victims of the disease were treated as pariahs by a public that reacted with fear and loathing towards a disease they didn’t understand. Molly was a fearless person, not just in what she did, but in how she thought and how she related to everyone around her.
My thoughts and prayers are with her daughters, Pam, Jessica and Barbara, and with her grandchildren Natalie and Alex. Along with them, with the rest of the extended family and with her many friends, I will miss her dearly.
