mimblr.com

It’s not that he doesn’t deserve his criminal justice degree. It’s that the former Bulldogs’ defensive tackle shouldn’t be walking. At all.
“The doctors said he’d be lucky to ever have feeling again, that he’d never walk,” said his mother, Robin Bourdlais, who lives in Allen Park.
But Jim Bourdlais, 23, one of about 1,700 Ferris students to graduate today, isn’t one to give up. In the months following the accident that could have killed him, a mostly paralyzed Bourdlais requested his brother, Bill Bourdlais, bring his hunting bow to the hospital, his mother said.
“He said … ‘I want to try to hold it,’ ” she recalled. “Billy said, ‘Is he crazy?’ and I said ‘Yep!’ “
Jim Bourdlais’ story begins on Jan. 15, 2006, a deceivingly sunny winter day. The Bourdlais brothers, 10 months apart and both hulking Ferris football players from Newberry in the Upper Peninsula, were on their way to a bow tournament in central Michigan.
The road was familiar, but the black ice, invisible. Their SUV skidded into a tree with a grinding crunch.
Bill Bourdlais, 23, who also graduates today from Ferris, had a fractured sternum and a few bruises but was largely OK.
Chin down, Jim Bourdlais was numb.
“I said to the ambulance driver, ‘I broke my neck.’ He said ‘Don’t move,’ and I said ‘Yeah, no problem.’ “
At Mecosta County Medical Center in Big Rapids, doctors rushed Bourdlais to a waiting helicopter that would take him to Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids. They wheeled the two brothers past each other.
Bill Bourdlais saw that his brother — the one who had taken the place of an absent father, who had taught him to pull back a bow and bait a hook when they were growing up — couldn’t move.

freep.com

Rosary Recitation at Planned Parenthod, 9:30 a.m. May 10 at Planned Parenthood, 4401 W. 109th St., Overland Park. Silent prayer witness only, led by Archbishop Joseph Nauman, no signs or protest. For information, contact Jennifer Gordon at lifefront@gmail.com; or call (816) 223-0035.
Pentecost Celebration, Mass celebrated by Bishop Robert Finn, 11 a.m. May 11 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 416 W. 12th St., Kansas City. Sponsored by Kansas City Charismatic Renewal. Reception follows Mass.
Fatima Rosary Rally Devotions, 3 p.m. May 11 at Church of the Ascension, 9510 W. 127th St., Overland Park, Kan. Rosary, benediction and enrollment in the Brown Scapular.
Memorial Mass for Deceased Loved Ones, 8 a.m. May 17 at Cure of Ars Church, 9400 Mission Road, Leawood, Kan. Following Mass the bereavement ministry at the parish will have a monthly support meeting. Discussed will be “Memories and Memorials.” For information, call (913) 649-2026.
Interpreted Mass for the Deaf, 9:30 a.m. May 25 at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 2200 N. Blue Mills Road, Independence.
Mass of Healing and Anointing of the Sick, 8:15 a.m. the first Friday of the month, St. Peter Church, Meyer and Holmes, Kansas City.
Hour for Vocations, 7 p.m. the first Wednesday of the month at Christ the King Church, 85th and Wornall, Kansas City; 7 p.m. the last day of each month at St. Elizabeth Church, 75th and Main, Kansas City; after the 11:30 a.m. Mass the first Sunday of the month at the Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Eucharist, 2100 N. Noland Road, Independence; and at 8:30 a.m. the second Monday of the month at St. Matthew Apostle Church, 8001 Longview Road, Kansas City.

catholickey.org

Dancers perform at Quebec City’s Winter Carnival last month. The city’s anniversary celebrations will last through October.
QUEBEC CITY, Canada This place is so terrific, it doesn’t really need roaming costumed opera singers, fireworks, a floating dance floor the size of Kansasan enormous floating dance floor, an 1,800-foot-long multimedia screen, more fireworks, the pope (possibly), the World Hockey Championships, parades of giant characters and a custom-made grand finale brought to you by the fabulously curious minds behind Cirque du Soleil.
It already had the Winter Carnival and its famed poutine, a comfort food of French fries, cheese curds and gravy.
But 2008 is Quebec City’s 400th birthday. They had to do something.
Meanwhile, Sam de Champlain is off his pedestal. Instead of standing heroically in the shadow of the iconic Chateau Frontenac, the statue of the Frenchman who dropped anchor here on July 3, 1608, is in the shop for a touch-up. And le Chateau is getting a tuck.
There’s a lot of that going around.
“You might have noticed,” said Roxanne St-Pierre, party spokeswoman, “the whole city is under construction right now?”
A mischievous grin.
“It’s because of us.”
In all of North America, even when nothing’s planned, there’s no place quite like Quebec City, mainly because there is no place in North America that can pass for European as genuinely as Quebec City. Streets properly twist and confuse. Back streets invite exploration. Its clopping horse-buggies seem appropriate, even if tour-bus fumes clash with horse fumes. Shops and inns look as if they’ve been here for centuries, and some of them have.
And dinner at Le Clocher Penche, a pleasant neighborhood bistro, means being immersed in the sounds of Québécoise French conversations which can sound foreign even to visitors from France.
It’s a city of galleries and churches and colorful farmer’s markets. It boasts wonderful street singers and enough restaurants to satisfy a wide range of culinary tastes. In fact, Quebec City echoes Paris and haute cuisine without the haughtiness.

projo.com