Dreary Day

Did I mention in any earlier postings about my Grandma's letter writing habits?

She used to sit on the sunporch on Sunday afternoons, in one of the two matching chairs we had there - woodback and arms -shaped kind of like the Adirondack lounge type chairs one often sees on open porches - and she would compose letters then to each of her children. Nothing outstanding about that habit is there? Except for the fact that years after she died, some of my cousins remarked about these letters their families would receive from her and that each one started out the same, "It's another dreary Sunday afternoon here!"

My cousins said they often wondered about why it was that Grandma seemed to think every Sunday was so "dreary" and also, since she always seemed to imply it was raining, how come we got rain here every Sunday as well!

Well, since it is raining here today - coming down in buckets earlier when my daughter, the two little ones and I had to go to Clearfield this morning because I was scheduled to have an MRI test done, I figured it would work for a good title - or excuse to write something in here today at any rate!

I was under the mistaken impression this test today was to be a CAT scan and since they don't usually take very long to have done, when Mandy dropped me off at the hospital, I told her I shold be done in probably a half hour, 45 minutes at the most. Well, it turned out to be more like an hour and 15 minutes before I was finished up and poor Mandy and the kids were parked out in the emergency parking zone for over an hour waiting on me! She didn't want to come inside because that would have entailed dragging a 3-year-old toddler and a 7 month old baby out of the car, through the puddles and pouring rain -even if it was only a matter of about 8 feet from the canopy outside the entrance, she would have gotten drenched just trying to get the kids out of the car. So, needless to say, by the time I came out, she wasn't exactly a happy camper and it took a good bit of wiping the windows off to get all the steam dried up there so she (and I) could see where the heck we were going!

By the time we got home, turned the tv on, we heard there were tornado warnings very near to where we live and supposedly a tornado was either predicted to possibly set down around Karthaus-Pine Glen area or that one had set down there! We still aren't sure which is which in that respect. I suppose I'll have to wait till 5 p.m. for the evening news to learn if one did touch down near to here. Sure do hope not!

I got an e-mail this morning from Carrie, my oldest - referring to plans for next Thursday - Thanksgiving. Looks like she and Robert will be spending the day at his brother's place. She's not sure about whether they will have Alex at all on that day either. This is one of those issues that frequently arise about custodial things between divorced people with children. It's also one of those things I never had to deal with in all the years my kids were growing up and Frank and I were divorced because he was always living too far away to make a big issue out of whether the kids spent holidays with me or with him! Now that's one thing I am really grateful for that my kids and I never had to endure!

This Thanksgiving will also mark the very first one in 27 years that it will be celebrated here, in my house, with dinner on my table! Ever since my Mom died in 1979, the kids and I have had THanksgiving and Christmas dinner at my dad's family homestead where his youngest sister "held court" you could say.

Aunt Mike - as she is known to all within the Hill family - had called me about a week prior to Thanksgiving that year to ask if the kids and I would like to have dinner with her, Aunt Lizzie, Jane Ann (Aunt Mike's daughter) and Uncle Arch and his wife, Aunt Isabel. It sounded like a good idea to me and it turned out to be the beginning of a very rich family tradition.

It gave my children more opportunity to be around my cousin, Jane Ann, who is severly mentally and physically challenged and as a result of that, all three of my kids grew up having much more empathy and compassion towards all people with any type of physical or mental difficulties. It also gave them a chance to get to know the other two surviving members of my Dad's siblings - Aunt Lizzie and Uncle Arch.

My Aunt Lizzie was quite a corker. When my kids got older, they began to refer to her as "Sophia" because they felt she resembled very much that character on the old tv show, "The Golden Girls." And yes, in many ways she did look and act a lot like Sophia. She was very tiny - short and small built in all ways. Her height was all of maybe 4 ft 10 inches, if that, and like Sophia, she also could have a very sharp tongue to her sense of humor. Although I know she loved each of my kids - all little kids really - dearly, she could make them toe the mark just with a glance of the eye at times!

Uncle Arch - now there's a horse of a different color! Sadly, my youngest - Mandy- has no recollection of him whatsoever although she was six years old when he died. I would have thought she would have some memories of him but she doesn't. I, on the other hand, remember him vividly from the time I was probably about 4 years old and on up through the years. He was a softy around children of all ages. One never walked past him without him pulling you to him and you got a big bear hug and had to give - and receive - a kiss from him! This wasn't something rough - it was a tender tug he would give to your arm as he would ask then for a hug and a kiss for Old Uncle Arch as you passed by him. And having him enfold you into his arms, close to his chest, you knew, you felt it immediately, the love that flowed forth from him into you with that small gesture. My Aunt Sis - my Dad's other sister - was the same way too! How many times over the past two decades have I longed to be able to be hugged by them just one more time again? Just about every day I think!

It was the way my Dad's family operated that actually eventually set the tone for how my kids and I react or respond to one another - no phone conversation ends without saying "I love you." to each other and in the house, when my daughter takes the little ones to bed, Goodnight hugs and kisses are mandatory and when she finally goes upstairs to bed at the end of the day, we always say "Goodnight, I love you." in parting. It really does give one a good feeling at the end of the day to close it with that simple phrase.

And, for this posting at this time today - dreary day outside or not - that's how I'm going to end this post too - with a simple little phrase - "love you!"