THE ONGOING STORY OF
THE RED CARDINAL
When Chris and Brian were in high school, we started to feed the birds each winter. Chris and Brian would throw bird seed around the backyard tree every few days and soon there would be Morning Doves, Blue Jays, Sparrows and Red Cardinals on the ground, in the tree, in the neighbors' trees: eating, watching, coming and going. We had a lot of fun watching them. We especially liked to watch the Red Cardinals. The Red Cardinal is the mascot of St. Charles Prep School, Chris and Brian's high school.
When Chris and Brian went off to college, I wasn't as conscientious about feeding the birds. Then when our Brian died, I think Chris fed them once or twice, but it wasn't the same. This winter (2000-2001) we didn't put any birdseed out and there have been no birds in the yard at all.
In the meantime, Red Cardinals became very important to good friends of ours, Jack and Molly Winkel. Jack and Molly's son, Andrew, is one of Brian's best friends from St. Charles and their daughters, Cassie and Colleen, were like sisters to Brian. Brian loved the Winkels and the Winkels treated Bri as their own. When Brian died, the whole Winkel family suffered they lost a son, a brother and a friend, too.
After Brian died, Jack started to notice that whenever he was thinking of Brian and really missing him - or wondering "Why did this have to happen?" there was always a Cardinal in his backyard, sittinglingering. Jack said he believed that Brian sent him that Cardinal, that beautiful red bird, as a sign, telling Jack not to worry, he is o.k. Jack took comfort in seeing the Cardinal and we took comfort knowing it comforted Jack.
I'm writing this on my birthday, a day I never cared too much about celebrating a day I feel even less like celebrating now. Today I was going to meet Chris and Mom and Dad halfway between Columbus and Steubenville (Chris is studying for his master's at Franciscan) and that I was looking forward to. It was around 9:00 a.m. and I was ready to go but I didn't have to leave until 9:30. I was in the kitchen and I looked out the window. There are deep green pine trees that line both sides of the backyard. That was the only color seen, except for the white of the snow. But suddenly a flash of red caught my eye. In one of the trees sat a beautiful Red Cardinal, perched on a green bough. It was almost as if he was waiting for me to notice him. I watched and he flew from the evergreen to the bare branches of the maple tree that Bri loved to climb. He landed on a low branch and sat there for a moment. Then he flew to a little higher branch and rested there. Then on to the highest branch in the tree. He stopped, looked down, looked one way and then the next, sat still then flew away. Brian's sign this time to me.
Now for the rest of the story:
At lunch, I didn't tell anyone about Brian's Red Cardinal. I knew I would cry if I tried to speak about it. But it was great to see Chris and Mom and Dad. I got home about 3:00 p.m. and on the front porch was a gift. I brought it in and read the card it was from Molly, Jack and the kids.
I opened the box. Inside was a very small, very red Cardinal, perched on a bare branch. How perfect.
But it doesn't stop there:
Just last month (June, 2004) Molly sent me this e-mail:
"And now I have a very nice story to tell you. You draw your own conclusions. Cassie's boyfriend (also named Chris) is a pitcher for Ohio University's baseball team. During the season he received some calls from a couple of pro teams, asking him if he wanted to play more, etc. He said yes and his name was added to the draft. It started yesterday afternoon. Finals are also going on so it was a stressful time.
There would be 50 rounds. After 18 rounds, Chris' name wasn't announced and he was pretty upset. He was trying to study while he was "waiting for the call."
Cassie called me a couple of times, telling me that Chris was getting discouraged. I told Cassie that I talk to Brian all the time, asking him for help with all of them (!). Maybe it was time for her to talk to Brian, too. She said she would.
Cassie called back around 4:30 p.m. She said that in the 36th round, Chris was chosen by the St. Louis Cardinals!"
Still, the Cardinal stories keep coming:
I have a nephew named Jared who lives in Florida. Jared was only 5 years old when Brian died. He and his family drove all night to Steubenville to help look for Brian and then came here to Columbus for Brian's funeral. Jared was nearly traumatized. After finding out that our Brian had died, I remember Jared walking around in circles with his head down, saying over and over again, "Brian's in Heaven, no one can hurt him; Brian's in Heaven, no one can hurt him." It was heartbreaking.
Over these past 5 years, Jared heard the stories about the Red Cardinals. One day in early September 2004, Jared, now 10 years old, asked his mom why he never got any signs from Brian like other people were getting. Red Cardinals aren't as prevalent in Florida as they are in Ohio so she simply told Jared that he would get some sort of sign, when the time was right.
A few days later Jared was playing with his friends Chris and Anthony Bellucci and Ryan Doss. They were talking about how great it would be to have fairy godparents who would grant their every wish. Jared said, "If fairy godparents were real, I would wish for a time machine and go back and stop those bad guys from killing my cousin Brian. But at least we have the Brian Muha Memorial Foundation." Anthony said, "What's that?" and Jared answered, "It's money we raise for people who can't afford to go to college," and he proceeded to tell them all about it.
Chris Bellucci, who had been away from the group, came over with a feather in his hand. "Look, I found a feather!" he said. Then Anthony said, "Hey, it's a red Cardinal's feather!" Jared got very excited and told them all about the Red Cardinal stories.
Jared and his friends buried the red feather at the spot. A week later, Jared saw a Red Cardinal in his backyard, the first time he ever noticed one. He has seen one 3 or 4 times since. They come around when he is eating breakfast, fly into the yard, fly out, and back again.
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