One is often asked on somber anniversaries, "Do you remember where you were when...?". President Kennedy was shot. The World Trade Center was attacked. D-day. If we were alive at the time, yes, we remember. Sadly, today we add another - "Where were you when Notre-Dame burned?"
We were in Paris. Recovering from one trip, and preparing for the next. The TV was off, but our cells phones started beeping as friends and family from the States saw the news. Like the other tragedies before this, we turned on the TV, and sat in stunned silence, watching Our Lady burn. Hour after hour. We would answer the phone, report that we were not in any danger, and promise to call back. Like so many other tragedies in our lifetime, it was incomprehensible, yet it was happening. It was hard to wrap my brain around what my eyes were witnessing.
Notre-Dame Cathedral is a special place to the world. Personally, it is a uniquely special place. In 2011, Ron and I made our second trip to Paris, taking two small locks we had bought at the Ace Hardware store. My daughters helped me decorate the locks with "Linda" and "Ron," and hearts in bright red nail polish. Ron and I locked them to each other, then to the Pont des Arts a bridge which spans the Seine River just above the Ile de Citi, home to Notre-Dame Cathedral. We used the cathedral steeple to mark our spot on the bridge, so that we could find it if (when) we returned. Then Ron dropped the keys into the Seine. At the time, as the pictures show, "locking" was a new thing. The legend was that if a couple left a lock on this bridge, they would return to Paris someday.
We returned two years later, and on the same spot, Ron asked me to marry him.
On both occasions, we went into Notre-Dame. We also attended many of the International Masses celebrated Sundays at 11:00.
We return to Notre-Dame on every trip to Paris. Our last visit was with our good friends Beverly and Dave a week or so ago. It is hard to believe that we are among the last to ever see the cathedral in its original splendor.
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