Paraphrasing Queen B, "I woke up like this?" Here are 2 Excellent Pictures and a Very Nice Note! We got the coolest note and pictures from Toni Ann in Florida (but born and raised in New Jersey) today!

Hey Everyone!

Paraphrasing Queen B, "I woke up like this?" These are the 2 Excellent Pictures and a Note! We got the coolest note and pictures from Toni Ann in Florida (but born and raised in New Jersey) today!

I tried to edit it but then I realized there was no need to edit it because it is perfect exactly the way Toni wrote it, this is verbatim (used with permission).

Toni’s Note from this morning July 22, 2020:

"Yes Rob you do have permission to post the photos.

A little information about myself that includes how I found you and Saints for Sinners: I lived my life in NJ…until 7 years ago when I transplanted to FL with my husband, Christopher and then HS and college children, Christopher and Victoria.

My husband saw Jeremy Shockey wearing one of your medals and when he looked up your site saw Bruce wearing them.  We are huge Bruce Springsteen fans.  It was shortly before we took our first trip to New Orleans.  When we found out you were in NOLA we did a little digging and we tracked them down to a store on Bourbon Street.  We purchased our first batch of Saints for Sinners on that trip November of 2011.

Jeremy Shockey with Mark "Tiger" Pharr & Jeremy Shockey with Rob Clemenz (that's me!)

As the daughter of a first generation Italian mother, I grew up on the same block as my immigrant Italian grandparents.  My grandmother and mother instilled a deep love for the saints in me.  I went to St. Brigid School, half a block from my house, passing my grandmother’s on the way and often running into her and the other old ladies on their way to mass at the church next to my school.  My husband’s grandmother was from Portugal she too loved the saints we shared a common love St. Anthony.  As these beautiful women passed, and my family knows I loved the saints, I have inherited my fair share of their statues.  I have found a way to take my saints with me in your Saints For Sinners medals. As well as share them with friends and family who need to have some saint love in their lives.

Blessings,

Toni Ann"

In another note she said she loved the tiny medals and in the picture above she is smiling because she is happy and surprised about the tiny Saint Christopher we sent.

These tiny medals sure are popular and it’s quite uplifting to read these notes to learn the tiny little medal kind of “spoke” to the person who got it as a surprise, a tiny piece of lagniappe. That’s so nice! We are definitely going to keep sending the tiny medals.

We still have 2 official programs of the canonization of Mother Theresa that are available so if you order Saint Teresa of Calcutta we are going to add one to your order. It is a very nice souvenir from the Canonization of Mother Teresa and it will be a valuable heirloom one day. I think so, anyway.

Finally, if you are one of the few people that may have read that “Mr. Worldwide” stuff in a prior email you need to erase that from your mind. It is retracted and it is embarrassing and shows zero degrees of humility and I do not want to be “that person,” EVER. So, if you read it, forget it. Please unread it for me. I would appreciate that very much. Honestly.

Of course, it is very sweet and nice and kind the way Emily said it when we were just hanging out and working. It’s just one of those things where it’s nice when something happens, but describing it is impossible. I guess that’s why people sometimes say “You had to be there.”

“And that’s all I’ve got. Thanks for letting me share.”