July, 2006

by Beth Cioffoletti

Have you ever known a person to whom you were strongly attracted and yet somewhat annoyed with at the same time? Pay attention. My theory is that person is very significant to you.

Mev Puleo is such a person for me. I only knew Mev for a week – we were roommates while traveling with a Pax Christi mission in Haiti in 1992.

We were different. Mev was very extroverted (like my sister), and could annoy me with her constant chatter (like my sister). Mev was 28 years old at the time, and I was 42. She was newly married and I had been married for almost 20 years by then, and had a little boy at home.

But we were similar as well. We were both fundamentally, at our core, Catholic (me in my way, she in hers). And we were both passionately committed to social justice.

Andrew Wimmer writes A Beautiful Kaddish about Mev (and Mark, and Noam Chomsky and the brain tumor – the book). He mentions “the bone”:

She was also relentless. She had the bone in her mouth
and wouldn’t let go.
Not everyone knows what to do with the bone.
Mev had more than a few ideas.
That’s what the boy from Louisville fell in love with,
the clear eyes and the bone.
His Hound of Heaven.
(There was hardly any time to sleep.)

I paid close attention to Mev during that week in Haiti. I could pick out her weaknesses and I could see her extraordinary charisma, focus and courage. There were parts about Mev that I absolutely loved, especially her naturalness and comfort with her body and her uninhibited laughter.

Mev is my missing puzzle piece. Even though I never told her as much, she became my teacher, the one who could show me some ways of how to do and be that were buried in me, and that I needed to uncover.

Mev died of a brain tumor less that 3 ½ years after that week in Haiti. But I have remembered Mev, much in the way that I remember my parents. I remember the details of how Mev was in life – incarnate – and I carry this memory like an icon.

Mev’s husband, Mark Chmiel, wrote a book about Mev this year, 10 years after her death. He sent me a copy.

The first week I had it, I dwelled upon it, picking out passages and looking, again and again, at the photos. This is a powerful book – it is personal. Mark shares his life with Mev, the details of who and how Mev was, their meeting and their love, the struggle for social justice in which their lives were lived. And he tells the intimate story of Mev’s dying.

For several months, I just looked at the book without opening it. It is that powerful.

Beth Cioffoletti

Originally posted at http://quotesandmusings.blogspot.com/2006/07/mev-puleo-1963-1996.html

by Megan Heeney

Dear Mark,

I hope this e-mail finds you well. I am just getting back from my week in the campo. It was a whirlwind and beautiful experience, I am sure there is more to come later, I wish we had more time in places, some day. Anyways I was writing you in thanks. Many of my friends here have been reading The Book of Mev. Everyday many thank me for giving it to them, feeling awkward I say you’re welcome, but I wanted to send that thank to where it is deserved. Your book has been enlightening to so many here. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! People have been sharing their favorite parts, from the Interview with Jon Sobrino, to Mev´s time with Ann here, to your writings at the end of the book, to your first meeting, to Mev´s journal entries, trip back from Brazil and time with the pope. So thank you again for sharing your and Mev´s life with us. It has brought much peace.

Peace, Your Friend,

Megan Heeney

Megan Heeney took Social Justice in the spring of 2005.

by Mary Kay Kelley

Mark,

Back in the late ’90′s I wrote to you after an article you wrote appeared in Praying magazine. My question was, did you plan to write a biography of Mev. At that time you said it was in process and you asked for prayers. I have just finished reading The Book of Mev and wanted to tell you how much it touched me. Your work captures the heart and soul of a remarkable young woman, and the depth of your love for one another. In my ministry I talk about the Communion of Saints, and since a majority of my work is with young people and young adults I refer to those who are saints of this time, those whose passion for the Gospel and life challenge us to look at our world with the heart of Jesus. So, thank you so very much!

Perhaps one day I will have the opportunity to meet you and express my thanks in person. Should you ever find yourself in the Philadelphia area, it would be a pleasure to meet you.

Prayers and Blessings!

Mary Kay Kelley,SSJ

by Anne Grass

Dr. Chmiel,

In my life, I am always amazed at the people and circumstances God uses to communicate His love and truth to me. Right now, I am overwhelmed by the loving presence of goodness in this world as evidenced by you and your late wife. I am only on page 95 of The Book of Mev, cannot stop crying, and decided to be pro-active against my tears that often lack value for me and write you an email you will probably never read instead.

Hi o hola, si quiere.

My name is Anne Grass, and I have lived in the West County of the lovely and broken city of St. Louis for most of my life. I feel like that is a confession because I am slowly beginning to understand that my residence in an affluent suburb in the US very much coincides and contributes to the residence of some other living breathing person in squalor—-I know because I have seen, or at least tried to see.

I recently returned from the Dominican Republic where I stayed for 4 months in a Catholic Mission and for a month of that time lived with the campesinos. I type this email in an air-conditioned room where the power will not go out because of poor infrastructure and corruption and realize I am lost. I am numb to the suffering I witnessed in the third world because back here in West County I am ordered to avoid suffering and hang out at the pool instead.

As a Business School Dropout, and soon to be Junior at Creighton University, I currently define myself as a “wandering soul” rather than the ever feared label of “undecided” or “undeclared”. Your book is speaking to me in a way that I am sure will aid in my discernment of my vocation to love and to serve. Thank you. Your words have inspired and will continue to inspire me. I am thankful for you and for your witness to the Jebby term MAGIS, to be the more.

Numbers 6:24-26: “May the LORD bless you and keep you; may the LORD make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; may the LORD lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.”

Que la paz este con usted… ana maria de la paz (Anne Grass)

by Judy Farace

Dear Mark,

I wanted to write and attempt to express in words my gratitude and let you know I really have no words to adequately say how your beautiful book about Mev has touched and inspired me.

I am a member of St. Francis Xavier College Church. On Sunday morning books are available in our lower hall “gathering place.” Several times during Advent I picked up your book, browsed thru it and put it back down. Then just before Christmas I told myself, I will buy it as a Christmas present for myself. Little did I know what I was in for. I don’t read a lot of books but I can honestly say that your book touched me so – I have never been so moved by a life and love such as yours and Mev’s.

I am simply awestruck by your relationship, how very beautiful and rare it is, both of your passion for life, the poor, your delightful humor in love, (one of the greatest love stories I have ever read) your values and simplicity for life, the nicknames, the many trips and photos, interviews, and works of justice; and the anguish and beautiful, yet so painful care of Mev as she suffered so in her last months on our earth. Also, the beauty of your community of friends and how genuinely caring and Jesus like they were both to you and Mev. I have met Teka several times, and know John Kavanaugh as a spiritual guide and dear friend also.

You know when you talk about Mev and her physical pain as her body lost its functions I could relate so well to your honest openness in caring for her physical needs. My sisters and brothers and I take turns now, day and night caring for our elderly parents in their home. It is humbling to bathe mom and dad and help them with toiletry, etc., dressing, etc. I cried when you talk about Mev. I believe that we become even closer to each other and these moments are often “holy times” for us, because we are Jesus to them.

There is so much in your book I just can’t even begin to go further. So I will stop here but I hope that you are doing well, and I read now about your trips to Palestine, and the articles in the Catholic Worker Round Table that I receive. Sometimes I think when my parents are no longer here, I might be able to give sometime to the Catholic Worker one day.

I also hope your teaching is very life giving for you and I know that Mev is always with you. May your spirit be blessed with peace and more life with the dawn of every new day. God bless you very special and my very deepest thanks to you.

Gratefully,
Judy Farace

by Mary Dutcher

Dear Mark,

I hope this message finds you most well.

Because of a visit from Millie Cargas (en route to Oxford for Serrita’s PhD graduation: she speaks of your counsel to Serrita most appreciatively), I find that she was unaware of The Book of Mev. She is now ordering it.

But because of her visit, I found myself re-reading it. What can I say? It is a beautiful, truthful, wonderful work. I did not write the first time I read The Book of Mev because I felt you were probably getting overwhelmed and needed space.

But I write now. It bears a second reading, and it still brims with beauty, truth and wonder.

You are a dear–and a courageous and truthful human being.

Love,

Mary.

PS. Greetings to Jean and Angie. I’ve become an Angie clone, working as an immigration attorney.