Two and a half generations of Mothers
May. 8th, 2011 01:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogDoesn't a snide reference to Charlie Sheen just brighten up your Mothers Day like a bouquet of flowers? Sorry, but it works, for I have messages for three moms and a someday mom who span three generations of our family. For your convenience, please order by number.
Another spring is finally dawning here. I put the screens in the front and back doors today, Eleanor is all out and about in the beauty of it, and the flowers- including the forsythias that I always remember from our yard being the harbinger of such things- are busting out all over. I will always remember us taking you and my MIL to Highland Park to see the lilacs, and how you couldn't believe that the bushes had to be walked to in order to see their variety and beauty. Yes, you had some nudge in you, but it was good nudge, and we wouldn't have changed any of it for the world that now terribly misses you and really needs way more people like you.
You live on in our lexicon ("that's nice!"), in our living room (where the picture of you and Michele from our wedding never fails to bring out smiles), and of course in our lives and those of the rest of the family who knew you and loved you, and always will.
----
Nicole found some pictures of you that I'd never seen before (or at least I don't remember having seen; yes, I'm older than you now, dammit, and the memory's the first thing to.... to.... oh, nevermind;) This one, doing the bunny ears on Michele, is just the quintessence of you, or maybe of the you that lives the strongest in me and is missed the most by me:
Your girls are now moms themselves, and your grandkids (and grandniece here) are growing up in a very different world than the one we and even your kids did. Yet we do our best to be ourselves, to be kind, to be funny, and to always keep singing no matter how fast the music's going or even if it's stopped for a moment. While I'm sure Ashes is chasing Cha-Cha all over your side of Rainbow Bridge (and constantly looking for you to slip them extra mooches), you can be sure that our menagerie over on this side is happy, well cared-for, and most of all loved- traits that came to me sideways, mainly from you, rather than from any experience a generation before.
We think of you daily, and love you perpetually. Be proud of who we are and, just as amazing, of how we became it.
Love,
The Damn Scorpio
----
I know how rough holidays can be for us, on account of where we each came from, but there's nobody I'd rather be with, and no place I'd rather be with her in, than this place, as we are now. Later this month will be 25 years since we took that first trip to Brazil, so watching a movie some consider "odd" with you just continues what has been a very happy trend for, now, more than half my life. I treasure all of that, but especially today I celebrate the Mother part of what you are- and how you have helped me so much to be not just a Father to Emily but a Dad, and even more important a friend, to her. We have all been blessed with one another, and this day really makes that shine in my mind and heart.
I love you,
Raymond Craig
----
The other day when I tried to connect with you, I told my friends who work in Penfield, who have younger kids, that you'd asked me to stop and bring home Mom's present for today. Deb oohed at that: "Wow! She's so grown-up!"
Maybe not enough to get a Happy Mothers Day note from me, but it's still amazing to look back, to when you were both of the ages in that bunny-ears picture and see how far you've come, as well. We may not always understand each other (especially on crackly cell phones;), but I am never- for an instant- anything other than proud of everything you've done, and are, and will be and become. When this day does bring you things on the receiving end- not that I'm any hurry here;)- I'm sure you will then feel those feelings on your end, as well as being on the receiving end of such love from who you bring into this world. We will always be there for them, and for you, and for those you love.
Now get back to studying;)-
Dad
Another spring is finally dawning here. I put the screens in the front and back doors today, Eleanor is all out and about in the beauty of it, and the flowers- including the forsythias that I always remember from our yard being the harbinger of such things- are busting out all over. I will always remember us taking you and my MIL to Highland Park to see the lilacs, and how you couldn't believe that the bushes had to be walked to in order to see their variety and beauty. Yes, you had some nudge in you, but it was good nudge, and we wouldn't have changed any of it for the world that now terribly misses you and really needs way more people like you.
You live on in our lexicon ("that's nice!"), in our living room (where the picture of you and Michele from our wedding never fails to bring out smiles), and of course in our lives and those of the rest of the family who knew you and loved you, and always will.
----
Nicole found some pictures of you that I'd never seen before (or at least I don't remember having seen; yes, I'm older than you now, dammit, and the memory's the first thing to.... to.... oh, nevermind;) This one, doing the bunny ears on Michele, is just the quintessence of you, or maybe of the you that lives the strongest in me and is missed the most by me:
Your girls are now moms themselves, and your grandkids (and grandniece here) are growing up in a very different world than the one we and even your kids did. Yet we do our best to be ourselves, to be kind, to be funny, and to always keep singing no matter how fast the music's going or even if it's stopped for a moment. While I'm sure Ashes is chasing Cha-Cha all over your side of Rainbow Bridge (and constantly looking for you to slip them extra mooches), you can be sure that our menagerie over on this side is happy, well cared-for, and most of all loved- traits that came to me sideways, mainly from you, rather than from any experience a generation before.
We think of you daily, and love you perpetually. Be proud of who we are and, just as amazing, of how we became it.
Love,
The Damn Scorpio
----
I know how rough holidays can be for us, on account of where we each came from, but there's nobody I'd rather be with, and no place I'd rather be with her in, than this place, as we are now. Later this month will be 25 years since we took that first trip to Brazil, so watching a movie some consider "odd" with you just continues what has been a very happy trend for, now, more than half my life. I treasure all of that, but especially today I celebrate the Mother part of what you are- and how you have helped me so much to be not just a Father to Emily but a Dad, and even more important a friend, to her. We have all been blessed with one another, and this day really makes that shine in my mind and heart.
I love you,
Raymond Craig
----
The other day when I tried to connect with you, I told my friends who work in Penfield, who have younger kids, that you'd asked me to stop and bring home Mom's present for today. Deb oohed at that: "Wow! She's so grown-up!"
Maybe not enough to get a Happy Mothers Day note from me, but it's still amazing to look back, to when you were both of the ages in that bunny-ears picture and see how far you've come, as well. We may not always understand each other (especially on crackly cell phones;), but I am never- for an instant- anything other than proud of everything you've done, and are, and will be and become. When this day does bring you things on the receiving end- not that I'm any hurry here;)- I'm sure you will then feel those feelings on your end, as well as being on the receiving end of such love from who you bring into this world. We will always be there for them, and for you, and for those you love.
Now get back to studying;)-
Dad
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Date: 2011-05-08 09:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 02:21 am (UTC)Beautiful.