Susan Dupré LaHaye - Lessons from a Fig Tree: Memories and Meditations from a Cajun Grandmother

Lessons from a
Fig Tree

Memories and Meditations from
a Cajun Grandmother

Susan Dupr LaHaye

Copyright 2020 Susan Dupr LaHaye.

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ISBN: 978-1-4897-2936-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-2935-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-2937-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020910779

LifeRich Publishing rev. date: 08/18/2020

Contents

I dedicate this book to my big sister Dulcie
Jane Janie Dupr LaHaye.

You were a North Star who made my life so good, so rich, and
whose marriage to Glenn brought into my life his brother Wayne,
my beloved spouse. You, a servant of God, your church, and
your family, taught me so much about holiness and selflessness.
How I already miss the simple pleasures we enjoyed: coffee, the
outdoors, and laughter. Our families of double first cousins, your
six and my five, gave us such a unique and remarkable life!

Thank you, my sweet sister.

J esus, in His parable of the barren fig tree, uses this image as foil to the fullness and sweetness of a good lifewhere one is aware of these blessings, illustrating that to be barren is to be cursed. In Louisiana, July is always steamy and miserably hot. I remember vividly, though only seven or eight years old, not wanting to help my Mom pick figs. Now, as I pick figs from my own tree in the quiet of the early morning, it has become a very pleasurable experiencewhere I contemplate many things and enjoy the peace of early morning coolness. Part of that pleasure is knowing the joy that this goodness, this blessingthe fig crop, both fresh and canned (preserved) will bring to my husband, my children, my grandchildren.

This tree is the very first mentioned in the Old Testament, and is found in the backyards of many, if not most, of Louisianas Cajun home sites. Louisiana, known for its great food, has produced manifold cookbooks, and all have recipes for cakes, pies, even ice cream using figs. They are still canned (preserved) by many for use in baking, breakfasts, and sandwiches all year long.

I have been so blessed in the fullness of my eighty years that I often think of this local fruit as a rich and sweet symbol of my fruitful life. Perhaps I use the term lessons as the title of this book because so much of my own life has been spent teaching. Surely life is a schoolroom, not a playground, where we never finish learning! It is in my nature, and it is in this particular corner of the nature given to me, in my own front yard, where I have learned so much.

Painted by my daughter, Suzette Miller.

PART I

Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all
circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ
Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, RSV)

For I know the plans I have in mind for you, says the
Lord, plans for your welfare, not for evil, to give you a
future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11, RSV)

M y story, I believe, is the story of many a Cajun grandmotherpast, present, and future. It could be the story of any woman of a unique culture who is fruitfulwho works and loves; suffers and laughs; strives to be the best she can be by using well the gifts her God has given her. No matter their race, creed, or color, all women are connected; we bleed the same red blood, we cry out in childbirth, we weep in barrenness; we glory in goodness and abhor evil. This is the story of only one woman, obviously smiled upon by life, and yet my lifelike all othershas not been without its own suffering and pain.

The details may differ, but the deep themes of joy and sorrow are similar. The lives of other Cajun women reverberate with mine, just as two harps in the same room will vibrate exactly the same tone after a single string has been plucked. Therefore, I pray that my story will grace many Cajun mothers and grandmothers to see more clearly the great blessings we share as a culture!

In my own family, both paternal and maternal families have experienced tremendous tragedies. It takes time and age to ponder these things in our hearts, and to weep in the kinship felt for ones long dead suffering ancestors. My paternal great-grandmother experienced the blessing of healthy fraternal twin grandchildren on the day following Christmas many, many years ago. Yet the young mother delivering her first babies died in childbirth. I cannot imagine the deep pain of any woman as she prepares for the funeral of her daughter (in law) and faces the fear in her heart for those two precious tiny babies. Soon afterwards, she lost her strong and beloved husband suddenly as well. How great must have been her courage beginning a new little family after having completed the rearing of her own ten children, but this time alone. Oh, what extraordinary strength our Catholic faith gives!

In my maternal family, it was my grandmother who passed away in childbirth, delivering her beautiful identical twin boys, leaving them and her other eleven children to her two older daughters to raise. The scars of desertion from the father who went on to marry another, and then father another family, were never healed. As the commercials today querywhat is a woman to do? Except to pray!

Once, at prayer, I pondered how we each have significant dates on the calendardays when our lives were changed foreverby the birth or death of a beloved. I realized then that every single day on the calendar has been D-Day or 9/11 for some soul in some century. There is a woundedness that is common to all men and womenjust as it was to our dear Lord and Savior, who was a Man born of woman, and therefore, destined at that very moment of birth, to suffer and to die.

Gratitude is the Memory of the Heart:
Memories of a Cajun Grandmother

F or He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. So our Blessed Mother Mary spoke in her glorious Magnificat (Luke 1:49, RSV). And so also the story of mine and Waynes marriage might begin and end. In his short homily at the Mass celebrating our fiftieth anniversary with our children and grandchildren, and our one little great-grandson, in our home on August 26, 2012, Father Neil McNeil reminded all of us that those years had surely been fifty years of generosity, fifty years of faithfulness, fifty years of forgivenessand indeed they were, and continue to be so!

Our acquaintance began in 1952 during 4-H Club Livestock Shows. Then on November 24, 1955, our siblings Janie Dupr and Glenn LaHaye married. We served as Maid of Honor and Best Man. In July of 1957, we became Godparents to their eldest son, Joel Glenn (Jody), and visited often at family celebrations. I remember buying a tiny cross for their little one and writing on the card for his baptism a recent quote from then well-known Bishop Fulton Sheen. I had heard him say on his TV show, God is the composer and conductor of the Symphony of Human Love. When two people are in love, they are simply playing Gods music back to Him.