7 PIGGY BANKS

Penelope loved piggy banks. She had a lot of them. She had one for every day of the week - and she must have had another 15 or 16 piggy banks that were full - and she kept those ones under her bed.

Penelope - sometimes called “Penny” -  was rich - and when her girl friends came to her house for a sleep over she showed them  her 7 piggy banks - one for each day of the week. 

And she would tell her very, very, very close friends, that she also her hidden ones - which she kept under her bed. These were the piggy banks that were filled to the brim - fat little piggies  filled with coins. They were heavy and if you shook them you would hear very little sound - because they were full - and heavy with lots of coins.

Her 11 aunts - her mom and dad both came from big families - her 4 uncles - all loved - ever since Penelope   was a little girl - to give her quarters and dimes and nickels - even some pennies - but she liked silver - and said so. Sometimes relatives would call her "Penny" - as they put loose pennies in one of her banks. That's when she preferred the name Penelope. She loved to watch people put those coins in the coin slot of her piggy banks. They would smile. She would smile. She was smart.

Her grandmothers - whenever they traveled - wherever they spotted an unique piggy bank - would buy it - and bring it back for Penelope.

Nobody had a problem with what to get Penelope for Christmas or her birthday: a piggy bank.

Her mom had collected thimbles - ever since she started sewing with needle and thread when she was 13 years old. Penelope noticed how proud her mom was of her thimble collection. An aunt collected decks of cards. A grandfather collected bottle openers. Another uncle had a baseball card collection. Another uncle saved baseball caps. He must have over a thousand of them - including ones from a team called the Yankees - which nobody in the family liked. Another uncle saved beer cans - never opened beer cans.

So Penelope didn’t seem odd with her piggy bank collection. She kept her Sunday to Saturday collection on top of her bureau - and she tried to put or get at least one coin for that day each day.

As I already mentioned she had her full piggy bank collection under her bed - and her dad had put shelves in her room for piggy banks people gave her. Those were all empty. They were for future fillings.   

When asked what she was going to be when she grew up, Penelope would always say with a great grin: “A banker.” Each teacher she had was surprised when they heard her give that answer. Someone would come into the class room and asked the kids what they wanted to be when they grow up. They heard the regular answers from the girls: veterinarian and oceanographer - and professional football player and NASCAR Guy from the boys.

Her brother called her “Oinky” or to really annoy her, “Oinky, Oinky, Oinky,” because of her piggy bank collection.

Well here is where the story has a dramatic change - an amazing dramatic surprise. One evening Penelope was sitting there reading a book and  she overheard her parents being very, very serious. They thought she was upstairs in her bedroom and her brother was down in the basement with his trucks.

Mom said, “Well, maybe we’ll have to sell this house and move. I know how hard you’re trying. Yet, if you aren't able to get hired soon - we’ll have to do something. It’s 5 months now that you’re out of work. Maybe I should get back to work.”

“No. I know things are tough,” said dad, “but we’ll make it. We’ll just have to keep praying and hoping someone likes my resume.”

Mom said, “We can’t ask our parents. They are already helping Junior and Teresa - and those two families are much worse off than us.”

Penelope became very, very quiet at that. She had heard the priest just yesterday talk about the rich man who couldn’t let go of his stuff and fit through the eye of the needle. The priest had brought a real needle into the pulpit - and a toy plastic camel. And he kept trying to get the camel to fit through that tiny hole for thread - but nope, it just would fit. Camels - even a tiny toy one - couldn’t fit through the eye of a needle.

Penelope had a plan.

That night after everyone had gone to bed - one by one she brought her piggy banks downstairs to the dining room table. It took her over an hour - quietly going up and down the 12 steps from her room to downstairs. Good thing they didn’t creak. Good thing the red rug softened her step. Good thing they had 2 hall lamps on.

She began with her Sunday to Saturday piggies first. Then she took all the full piggy banks from under her bed. There were 16 of them - full. She took each of them one by one - just in case one would drop and would wake up her mom and dad. She didn’t worry about her brother. Nothing woke him up. She never counted how much she had, but she knew she was loaded.

Then she got a piece of paper and a bright green florescent colored magic marker and wrote this note: “Dear Mom and Dad, Here’s some money to help us with our bills - till you get a new job dad. Thanks for all you have given me so far. And I set up 7 new piggy banks on my bureau. I’ll start filling them up tomorrow - but I’m not expecting any money from you - not even pennies.  Thanks for everything. Love and prayers, Penelope.”

Then before she went to bed, she knelt down and said a prayer. “Thank you God for being so good to us - but right now we're going through some tough times. Please help daddy a new job!”

OOOOO

NOTE: This was a story I wrote last night for our Children's Mass for this 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, with the Gospel from Mark 10: 17-30