Category: family

A to Z Blogging Challenge · family

Y is for Young

Sally13 Comments

There once was a couple quite young
Who together their fortunes they flung
Handsome husband, lovely wife
They had a great life
[can you finish my limerick for me?]

1953
My dad and mom –2008?

I did not imagine that I would get emotional writing this post about my parents. I went back and found a post I had written in 2011, They were young, and started to tear up.

My mom had dementia. I started this blog while I was trying to unravel that knot. The name of the blog is based on something she had done — put marmalade on my dad’s hot dog for lunch. She went through a whole marmalade phase, putting marmalade on everything.

Gosh, I’m so emotional looking at those photos, remembering.

She died in 2015. He died in 2019. There’s a huge lump in my throat.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · family

X is for X-mas (and other holidays)

Sally9 Comments

There once was a family who posed
Each year in their holiday clothes
Christmas, Easter, and such
It was never too much
[can you finish my limerick for me?]

1963?
1965?
1966?
1967?

My family faithfully took posed family pictures. We suffered through them as kids.

Then those group photos morphed into pictures of birthdays, graduations, weddings, anniversaries, and family reunions.

I know X-mas was a stretch for this A-to-Z Challenge. I’m not sure exactly when many of those photos were taken, but here’s a posed family picture that was clearly Christmas:

1966?

My mother painted this picture of our family on plywood and it stood outside our house in Fort Devens at Christmas time. I marvel that she did that.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · family

W is for Washington

Sally4 Comments

There once was a trip to Dee Cee
With an unplanned meet-up with fam-lee
We toured all the sites
’bout freedom and rights
[can you finish my limerick for me?]

I would be guessing at the dates. 1970? 1971? 1972?

In any event, I remember the trip my family took to Washington DC during which we ran into my cousins. We were visting, I think, the Air & Space Museum. It doesn’t really matter — we spent the rest of the day together.

I look at these photos and find it remarkable how unchanged how much Washington is.

And yet — that skyline will be changed by one man.

One man who is so insecure about his sense of self that he feels that he needs to leave his mark on everything.

Everything. Literally everything.

Without approval of any governing bodies.

e.g. Let’s build an arch that overshadows the Lincoln Memorial.

e.g. Let’s redo the reflecting pool and paint it blue.

e.g. Let’s tear down a wing of the White House and build a ballroom.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · family

V is for Vest

Sally10 Comments

There once was a man in a vest
Matching tie, matching son — it’s the best!
Or is it? he thought
Matchy-matchy, or not?
[can you finish my limerick for me?]

I went through a matchy-matchy phase with my kids. Here’s proof:

They’re pretty cute, I’ll admit.

But in the end, I think I value individuality more.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · family

S is for SS Atlantic

Sally5 Comments
S. S. Atlantic
Onboard the S. S. Atlantic

There was a ship: S. S. Atlantic
Young mom on-board, little bit frantic
Active toddler son
Always on the run
[can you finish my limerick for me?]

When my family left Ethiopia, we returned to the States via a ship called the S. S. Atlantic. Interestingly, the ship started off as a freighter called the S. S. Badger Marina, but was rebuilt in 1958 as a passenger liner.

My youngest brother was under two years old when we made that trip and I was only five. I don’t remember it from the voyage but my mother much later told me about how she had a leash for my brother so he wouldn’t get away from her on the ship. She said other people were very critical of that. As a mother of five sons, I totally understand why she did it.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · family

R is for Rollfast

Sally4 Comments

There once was a boy named Pete
Whose Rollfast bike was real neat
And roll FAST it did
He was one happy kid!
[can you finish my limerick for me?]

I showed this photo to a friend whose first comment was something like “I bet that bike would be worth a lot today!” I looked it up. Yes, the bike is classified as vintage.

Ah, vintage.

Does that mean the person with the bike is also vintage?

Does that mean that I’m vintage?

Faith · family · Life

Serenity

Sally18 Comments

From the time I was young, I had trouble waiting
Always-late-people? So irritating!
Delayed planes and buses — very frustrating
I wished I could be easygoing!

Yes, I was impatient — but wanted to change
So I started to pray (does that sound somewhat strange?)
I thought that I knew what God could/would arrange
Truth is — I asked without knowing

Well, God sent me teachers — one at a time
For a total of eight — tiny, helpless, sublime
This slow learner experienced shift paradigm
While all of my children were growing

Sereneness is seeing the blue of the sky
Feeling the sun, watching bees fly
Being in moments ‘stead of letting them by
Not going faster, but slowing

So I learned to slow down from my children eight
Little knowing, indeed, what was my next fate
Aging parents, dementia, at the next gate
No regrets — just love overflowing

For eight I witnessed their very first day
For two I was present as they passed away
Each one a miracle in its own way
Listen — do you hear the wind blowing?

This is my response to this week’s W3 challenge.

Poet of the Week, Nigel Byng, challenged us to “Write a paean about a moment of personal triumph. This can be something from your past, something you are currently experiencing, or something you envision for your future. The moment should feel meaningful—something that changed you, clarified something essential, or marked a quiet or dramatic victory.”

A to Z Blogging Challenge · aging · family

J is for Joy

Sally4 Comments

There once was a boy and an ocean
When they first met, what emotion!
Joy and delight!
Giggles! (Some fright)
[how would you finish this limerick?]

This is a photo of my oldest brother and (I think) my aunt. I’m guessing it’s Ocean Grove, New Jersey, but I could be wrong. I just know that my father and his family used to go there. They nicknamed it Ocean Grave, I think because there were a lot of older people there.

Bear in mind, all of this could be totally wrong.

The expression on my brother’s face, though, is undeniable joy.

I was reading this morning from William Willimon’s book Accidental Preacher — a self-illustrated memoir — and came across this little sketch:

From William Willimon’s memoir, Accidental Preacher

He had based his sketch on a photo. Here’s what he said,

I love that photo’s depiction of one of the great joys of aging — leading a little one toward the grand adventure of the wide world, gripping his hand reassuringly, egging him on to face into the wind and leap the waves.

But yesterday, when I looked at that picture of the two of us — the little boy and the old man — it occurred to me that I had misread that moment. I, who always thought that I was leading the child, saw that I was being led…

He was all future; I was now mostly past. In truth, the little one, still fresh in the world, had me by the hand, encouraging me to make my way into the deep…

A to Z Blogging Challenge · family

I is for Irwin

Sally11 Comments
Irwin Army Hospital 1962

There once was a man named Irwin
Fort Riley named their hospital for him
A good man, I would say
Building’s still there today
[can you finish my limerick for me?]

I’ll be honest. I have zero recollection of our family’s time in Ft. Riley, Kansas.

This photo was taken 8-9 months AFTER that move.

I was 6 weeks old when we moved from Ft. Knox to Ft. Riley. My father had gone on ahead and my mother had essentially done the move by herself.

Of course, I had no idea about any of that until 50 years later. I had asked my mother many times about what I was like as a baby. She had always dodged the question — which made me think I must have been a fussy baby. One day, though, she said, “That was a terrible time,” and she went on to talk a little bit about that move.

I think the military does stuff like that — insensitive to the service-person’s family. They’re getting better though. I’ve followed this story: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c98kn1k3nreo about a young wife arrested and taken from her new husband when he was trying to get her settled in base housing. She had come into the country illegally when she was 22 months old and had been working through the paperwork.

Clearly NOT the “worst of the worst.”

After being taken away in handcuffs and held five days in a detention center, she was released. She has been fitted with an ankle monitor and told to report to ICE every week.

I’m proud that my father served in the military. I’m not always proud of what our country is doing today and think it would be a hard time to serve.