5 posts tagged “life”

Forty one years ago today my mother died. March 12, 1967. She was forty-five. I was nine. Not a day goes by that I don't think of her for one reason or another. Today I can't help but think of the fact that I am five years older now than she was when she died. I know that my brothers and sister think of her as well, and that this date is remembered by them too. She was the sun that warmed us. And I can't help thinking that, had she lived a while longer, my life might have been different in a million little ways.

Our relationships with the dead continue to change over years, I've come to believe. At different stages of life we begin to understand things that we couldn't possibly have before we had certain experiences or knowledge of certain things. We forgive, we accept, we grow. But we do not forget. The memories can be cherished without being idealized.

Sisters- Mom, Dorty, Lois, Joan

Grace June graduates

Me, Mom and Joyce (left to right)

What are 10 things you've done that other people probably haven't? 
Submitted by Janette.   

1. Hitch-hiked across country (from Indianapolis to Los Angeles) when I was in my teens. It has been many years since then, I don't think I'd do it now.

2. Shot (photography) jazz recording sessions with many great jazz artists, including Dave Brubeck, Marian McPartland, George Shearing and dozens of others.

3. Did extensive/intensive photo research for the Ken Burns "Jazz" Series.

4. I have been deep sea fishing.

5. I have been held at gunpoint and didn't pee my pants.

6. I worked at a shelter in NYC for a year and a half.

7. I was once (quite by accident) featured on one of Oprah's Random Acts of Kindness shows, when a hidden camera caught me helping a woman who had dropped her things at the corner of Washington Square Park. Apparently, I was the only woman who had stopped to help this lady all day, including a nun that they caught just walking past her. I would not have wanted to be that nun when they stopped her and asked her on tape why she didn't stop.

8. I once worked at a restaurant where I had to slide down a fireman's pole carrying cakes. I got so that I could come down that pole upside down, not using my hands because I was carrying a cake in each one, which I would hand off to other wait staff at the bottom. Thrilling. I figured since my grandfather had been a fire-chief for something like fifty years, and my dad had been a volunteer fireman, it must be in the genes...

9. Ummm, my sister and I were the youngest members (ever) of the adult choir at our church when we were kids...

and

10. Uh, I can't really think of a tenth thing right now. But I'll add it tomorrow, after I've slept. Maybe.     

What do you do with the cards and letters you receive?  Do you keep them all, just keep the photos, throw them away? 
Inspired by jacolily.

I keep them. I have cards and letters from decades ago from some people. I also keep engagement calenders, or planners. It reminds me of all the lives I've led.

What's on your holiday wishlist?

I assume this means besides the standard desire for world peace, an end to global warming and a satisfactory end to the WGA strike?

I want a safe, happy and healthy delivery of my new great-niece, who is due this week.

I want the foodbanks of this state, and even this country, to be filled again by the generosity of those who may not be aware that, while they send aid all around the world, their neighbors are going hungry. 

I want speech to really be free again.

I want an end to war. And if it doesn't end soon, I want my nephew Ryan to come home safe and whole from Iraq when he goes there after the first of the year.

So much to want, so little time. But each of us must do what we can do, in our own little ways. And never give up trying.

What are your irrational fears? 
Submitted by Dan Culhane.  

 

If I told you, I'm sure you would only use them against me.