Two saints...

also known as my Aunt Diane and Aunt Josie. Separately, they read the entry listing the things on our makeshift shrine and plotted how to rectify the missing mezzuzah. Diane was on the verge of getting one for us, when lo and behold, it turns out Josie for some reason has one. Which she immediately sent to us and now hangs on the wall next to the photographs. Joshua was annoyed, to say the least, at hearing the clatter of me hanging it up. He did notice it immediately, looking straight at it and asking, "Is that a mezzuzah?"

I realized as I was hanging it we do have one other special something from the Jewish tradition. It is a tradition to place a rock on the gravestones of the deceased. Joshua attended a one-year memorial service following 9/11 in Brooklyn, where they gave out rocks in memory of the lives lost on that day. I've added that to our collection.

And, I realize I forgot to list one thing on the shrine. We have a beautiful miniature collage that my sister-in-law made for Joshua, containing a picture of the Virgin Mary. I also included a mask made from whalebone made by the Inuit. It doesn't hold any specific religious meaning to my knowledge, but is very beautiful and special to us. And someone commented that it has a certain likeness to Joshua.