So many ways to express gratitude, often without saying
thank you,
sometimes without saying anything at all.
What can I say to you?
I owe you everything. Everything.
-It's like a dream, isn't it? -No, better.
Wait! I owe you my life!
He's a friend. And no one must ever know.
Thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings that then I scorn to change my state with kings.
A terrible angel... come to save me.
-Thanks for coming. -Friends do for each other. That's what it's about.
Thank you, Lucy.
I'm here.
Thanks. I appreciate it. All of it.
I appreciat you hangin' in there with me, Cathy.
Miss Chandler, I don't know how to thank you.
Thank you!
Your writing has helped me through dark times. You've helped me, made me think. I just wanted to tell you, to thank you.
I'm beholden to you, Vincent. You cannot know what this means to me. Or perhaps you can at that.
We must take what we're given. 300 days... a few months...
Vincent, we can't waste it.
I've lived here all my life, and yet it's as though I've never seen this city. Til tonight.
That neither present time nor years unborn could to my sight that heavenly face restore.
She found him. He's all right!
Catherine, you've been more than a good friend to me. I know what you've risked and believe me, I am grateful.
Father! I'm so glad you're safe.
No words. Just hold me, hold me!
Oh, yes there was a time when I gorged myself on bittnerness and self-pity, but then I came to know someone
who had every reason to curse fate, to feel... punished. And yet he accepted all that life had to offer with gratitude and love.
Vincent? (He nods.) We must do that too.
-Margaret said the last 7 days were the happiest of her life.
-And how is Father?
-Healing. Alone. Grateful.
-They truly loved each other.
-Yes.
-It's so sad. To have had a beginning and an end, and all the time in the middle, empty.
-They had 7 days, Catherine. Seven days.
-Next time you call, I'll be in.
-Why?
-Because you didn't put a price tag on this.
Only Mouse I've ever known with nine lives!
Mouse? Catherine? I have no words to thank you.
-Our time together is always measured in minutes, seconds.
-Then we must learn to measure our lifetime in another way.
-Yes.
It's because I survived then that I'm doing this now, so that others are spared.
-What is it Vincent? What are you thinking?
-How ashamed I am... that you saw me as I was. How grateful I am that you were there. You saved my life, Catherine.
-It's been a rough year for you. Why cling to it? (the scar)
-Because it's been the most wonderful year of my life.
-Vincent... you might enjoy this along the way.
-Thank you, Father.
I owe you, Cathy. You stuck by me. I... I don't know what to say.
-How remarkable you are... remembering such a dark moment with dancing light.
-It's a time for celebration. I found hope again that night. I found you.
Every moment since that night, I'm reminded of what a gift life is.
-We thought you were-
-Dead?
Tools! For me? Look! New! ... Thank you.
For you. A gift, from me. You give, I give.
Why, thank you, Mouse!
-Think of all the good this can accomplish, for all of us, for the whole community!
-We could buy food, medicines, new toys for the kids.
(applause)
Hey, lady! I owe ya! A gypsy never forgets.
-You're my friends...., I accept your help. But the way is uncertain. You must both promise you will turn back at the first sign of trouble.
-I promise.
-I promise.
-Then we go, the three of us, together.
-This is for luck.
-Thank you, Mary, and all of you.
Oh, good! I was almost out of orange! Thank you Mouse. You're a dear child!
-Do you have any idea where he's gone?
-Up! Up, you know, to stop that damn blasting.
-Elizabeth, thank you.
You helped me find the best part of who I am.
Thanks for coming.
Everything. He gives me everything. All the things I never had before.
Thanks, Nance, for everything.
-What we have is all that matters. It's worth everything.
-Everything?
Nothing is ever lost. We're all on the same journey. We create that journey for each other.
-If I could begin again, start over.
-Anything is possible.
-I don't know what to believe.
-Yes, you do. Remember love.
-Catherine. It ws a dream. A terrible dream. Everything was changed. I couldn't wake up.
Well, it's over now. I'm here.
Yes. I thought I'd lost you.
-Oh, Vincent. Don't you know? You could never lose me. We could never lose each other. As long as we remember....
-Remember...
-Remember love.
-You're remarkable.
-I hope you're not talking about my singing.
-No. About how much you... give to all of us.
-To be able to give is what all of you have given to me.
Her love opened the world for me.
Shhh. Don't cry. Go to sleep. Don't you know I never had a mama to sing to me? Don't you worry.
Nothing like that is ever gonna happen to you. You're not gonna be anything like me. You're gonna have a different life.
You're gonna have a real family. And they're never gonna do anything to you you don't want.
Except teach you things you need to know, and take care of you when you need taking care of. So don't you worry.
-Welcome home, Lena.
-Thank you.
It has been said that the child is the meaning of this life. Today we celebrate the child, this new life that has been brought into our world.
We welcome the child with love, that she may be able to love. We welcome the child with gifts, that she may learn genorosity.
And we welcome the child with a name, upon which I believe Lena has decided.
Catherine.
-These are lovely, Rebecca! I do believe they're the finest candles you've made for us.
-You said that last year!
-It was true last year!
-And the year before.
-I love making the Winterfest candles. They're special.
Vincent, it's beautiful.
This is no ordinary candle. This is for Winterfest. It's a special time for us. We have other celebrations, all the holidays and traditions we share with yoru world,
but Winterfest is our own. It's a time to remember the past, dream of the future. Each year we deliver these candles to our helpers in the world Above.
Without their light, our world would be dark. Our lives would be cold wiithout their warmth. The candles are our way of saying that they are a part of us.
Everyone, the entire community, has agreed: This year's Winterfest would be incomplete unless you are there.
-The world above us is cold and gray, summer a distant memory. Our world too has known its winters.
So each year, we begin this feast in darkness, as our world began in darkness.
-Long before the city above us raised its towers to the sky, men sought shelter in these caverns.
-In those days, these tunnels were dark places, and those who dwelt here dwelt in fear and isolation.
-This was a land of lost hope, of twisted dreams, a land of despair, where the sounds of footsteps coming down a tunnel were the sounds of terror,
where men reached for knives and rocks and worse at the sound of other men's voices.
-But at last a few people learned to put aside their fear
-and we began to trust each other, to help each other,
-and each of us grew stronger, those who took the help, and those who gave it.
-We are all part of one another, one family, one community. Sometimes we forget this, and so we meet here each year to give thanks to those who have helped us.
And to remeber: Even the greatest darkness is nothing, so long as we share the light.
At any rate, Catherine is our real hero. ... Well, however you did it, we are deeply grateful, dear Catherine.
Catherine, you're part of us know. come, complete the circle.
The darkness almost engulfed us this year, but our unity gave us strength. Our shared light showed us the truth.
As we part for another year, let us remember: Darkness is only the absence of light, and all winters end.
-I'm very grateful to you for everything.
-I'm happy to be able to do it.
-How can I thank you?
-You already have.
My life above was nothing but disappointmets, failures. Nothing good every happened, until I found this home beneath the city.
Down here I do what I do best: I cook. Feed people. And they appreciate me. I'm needed.
I help, everyone . Everyone helps me. I go, they miss me. I come back, they're glad. Never alone. Before, I was no one. Now I'm me. I'm Mouse.
-You have friends Below, always.
-Thank you.
-Your heart led you here. Let it show you the way when you go home.
It's incredible. You've stolen the eye of the storm.
Devin, even when you were a small boy, I could always count on you to make life... interesting.
Nonetheless, it's good to have you home.
-I also have one more present for you.
-Kanin! It's beautiful!
That's a wonderful memory to have.
-Where were you? I mean where the hell have you been?
-Thanks for worrying.
Don't worry, Daddy. I won't fall. I won't fall.
Our world sleeps. These deep tunnels and chambers and caverns, even the pipes are still with sleep.
Yet it is in these quiet moments that I truly feel the balance of this place and remember the delicate miracle that it is.
At times, even to me our world seems half imagined, as if suspended , kept in place only by the weight of the world Above.
I know how fortunate we are, all of us, to have each other, and what my life would be without them.
Sometimes in these hours I hear Whitman's Song echo gently. I cannot define my satisfaction; yet it is so. I cannot define my life; yet it is so.
Is there any gift greater than this joy? Can the soul offer a prayer more perfect than this tender silence?
-This is so generous of you, Long.
-Business is good.
-Still, I don't...
-Catherine, when I come from Vietnam, I had nothing. No one, no English. Father, Vincent, and the others....
There's not enough I could ever give them or do for them to return what they gave me.
Tennyson... first edition... this is perfect! Thank you.
Did you hear that?! She said next time, next time! That means she's forgiven me, she's forgiven me!
In fact, if it hadn't been for this place, I might have never learned to dance at all. It was Father who found me my very first teacher.
And Vincent, why, it was Vincent who took me to see my very first ballet.
I look out on this city of night, and tonight I am one with it. I see the pathways and crossroads, the rush of possibilities,
and I feel every point of light that is a life, each with its wonders and terrors. I see how in a single night a world can be transformed,
how in one terrifying andd wondrous monent, my world was transformed. On a night as dark and glittering as tthis, two years ago, I found Catherine.
Two years ago... tonight.
Cathy! You ok? You sure?
I sure am glad that you're ok.
-I felt you go. I felt you go.
-Hold me tighter. Tighter!
-How do you feel now? Are you still afraid?
-No. Just very grateful.
-We've endured... much.
-Yes we have. And I know in the deepest part of who I am that whatever happens now, Vincent, we will endure. We will.
-One of my fondest memories when I began to read, truly read.
-Voraciously, I remember.
-Every night after dinner we would read to each other something we had found that day, a poem, a passage, something that struck us in a deep place.
-Yes, I know.
-And we'd talk, sometimes into the night, about what all the words meant, about... everything.
-Those were wonderful talks. I remember.
-No child ever had a better education.
-And I promise you, Vincent, no father ever learned more from any child.
Thank you, Cathy. Thank you.
I don't know how you did it, but I wanted to thank you.
-Cath-
-Elliot!
-I thought you-
-Me too.
-How do you feel?
-There are no words.
-Try one.
-Blessed.
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