This reflections and questions journey paused for a journey with my sisters (one by birth, one by marriage). They shared a stranger’s home, sights, meals, and memories with Nancy and me.
The night our mother would have been 99 we had dinner beside her chair that was emptied 26 years ago. We four allowed her spirit to fill the space with stories, sayings, teachings, laughter, and tears. Some stories needed only the first sentence by one to be completed by another. Since mom was an only child, we orphans are the ones who keep her living alive.
I have one person in the universe who shares with me a lifetime of memories, loves, trials, joys, and griefs, but in different ways than I do. Our mother’s mother experienced the death of her husband and her brother within months of each other. She quipped, “Now the only two people in the world who think I’m perfect are gone.”
Like my mother, our son is an only child. How will he find ways to keep the fires burning? I have been told and I truly believe that people can be alone without being lonely. That is not my experience, however. I am thankful for a lifetime of sharing support with the mutual admiration society that is my sister and me.
Who is the person who has shared your life with you the longest? How do you celebrate that relationship? Where do you demonstrate your gratitude?
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I really identify with this story, Wally. My mom and her twin sister were born in St. Matthew, KY. My grandparents did not have much money, but managed to scrape up enough to either send each girl separately to William Woods (then) College for one year, or both girls for one year. You can imagine the answer. Time went on and both girls married and had a family. The problem was that both married men with jobs far away from the other. The girls told their soon to be husbands that they had to talk to one another for one hour every Sunday. So be it.
When my cousins, brothers and I were growing up, every other year our family’s met up in the Smokey Mountains at Cherokee, NC, then drove (in the back of station wagons) to Pawley’s Island, SC where the parents split the cost of a beach house for one week. These are precious memories for all five of us.
A few years ago, after both of the girls and their sweet husbands had passed away, we cousins decided to honor our mothers, and fathers, and tradition by planning a long weekend. It was glorious, filled with laughter, stories and tears. We did not intentionally leave a couple of chairs around the table, but we are sure they, all four, were with us. It was palpable!
So now, every other year, one of us takes on the task of planning a long weekend so we can tell stories once again, and reminisce.
Thanks for taking me down memory lane!
Helen
Thank you for sharing your beautiful and meaningful story