Complicated Confirmation
I dress in my Sunday best. I arrive in time to take a seat next to her mother and grandmother. I tuck the narrow gold satin ribbon into the page for hymn #483. Simultaneously I’m an outsider and I am at home. It is confirmation day for young Sophia, whom I have known since she was born. She walks slowly down the aisle. Covering her floor-length red robe is a white cape with a red cross and “PHILOMENA” in big block letters of red felt. The organ fills Saint Cecilia’s Cathedral as the procession of the baptized now prepare to
