This afternoon's special guest blogger:
Oct. 27th, 2008 12:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogMy sister sent me this yesterday, in anticipation of today, which would have been our mother's 92nd birthday. There are no words I could add:
Hi Ray:
Since I did not have mom's e-mail in heaven, I thought I would send it to you for forwarding to the appropriate location - heaven of course!
Maybe it happened when I fell - maybe I jarred a few brain cells along with my proximal humerus. It seems like lately I have been thinking so much about our mom and her life and how it spanned most of the 20th. century. With Obama just about to lose his beloved grandma, I am sure the same kinds of thoughts go through his mind as well.
Just like unfolding a scrap-book spanning the century, mom's life started in the shadow of the first world war. I don't think she remembered much about that as her early years involved crossing the Atlantic for a new beginning in an older world. Alas, like many other things in her life, that did not work as planned and back she and her mom came to Brooklyn NY in the mid to late 20's - just in time for the first depression.
Mom and grandma were now alone in the world as the first man in her life to break her heart never returned to re-join them. Basically she was raised by a now single mom who tried her very best to support a beautiful but very dependent little girl in a time that was more than cruel to the strongest of families. With few family ties and even fewer resources, Mom managed to find herself a life in the form of a man who promised to protect her yet failed to protect her from himself.
As the decades passed and we children arrived on cue - Sandy in the late 30's, me at the beginning of the baby boom of the 40's and you at the very end of the 50's, I know that mom looked to us for hope and faith in the future. For this we can all be grateful. For despite the challenges and hopelessness she must have felt over the years, she never lost that twinkle in her eye when speaking of her babies. Her babies's babies too!
While she had to face the incredible sadness of losing her first child, she did take solace in watching all of us grow into caring human beings with an abundance of compassion (it's in the DNA), as well as having the joy of becoming a grandma.
The lessons she inadvertently taught us were not found in textbooks but as a result of her totally innocent outlook on life. Despite having experienced some of the worst results of human behavior, she always looked for the best in people. She was never bitter about her lack of opportunities in life and always applauded the achievement of others. While some of her actions could very well drive us crazy, we always knew she loved us with the purest of hearts.
Tomorrow Sharon will drag me up to Vestal Hills to place a flower on mom's grave as it is indeed the right thing to do. Today however, I talk to you from my own heart and would ask that you pass this on in some form to the girls as I lack the savvy to send one letter to several people - I am after all my mother's daughter. Your sister too!
Love always,
Donna
Hi Ray:
Since I did not have mom's e-mail in heaven, I thought I would send it to you for forwarding to the appropriate location - heaven of course!
Maybe it happened when I fell - maybe I jarred a few brain cells along with my proximal humerus. It seems like lately I have been thinking so much about our mom and her life and how it spanned most of the 20th. century. With Obama just about to lose his beloved grandma, I am sure the same kinds of thoughts go through his mind as well.
Just like unfolding a scrap-book spanning the century, mom's life started in the shadow of the first world war. I don't think she remembered much about that as her early years involved crossing the Atlantic for a new beginning in an older world. Alas, like many other things in her life, that did not work as planned and back she and her mom came to Brooklyn NY in the mid to late 20's - just in time for the first depression.
Mom and grandma were now alone in the world as the first man in her life to break her heart never returned to re-join them. Basically she was raised by a now single mom who tried her very best to support a beautiful but very dependent little girl in a time that was more than cruel to the strongest of families. With few family ties and even fewer resources, Mom managed to find herself a life in the form of a man who promised to protect her yet failed to protect her from himself.
As the decades passed and we children arrived on cue - Sandy in the late 30's, me at the beginning of the baby boom of the 40's and you at the very end of the 50's, I know that mom looked to us for hope and faith in the future. For this we can all be grateful. For despite the challenges and hopelessness she must have felt over the years, she never lost that twinkle in her eye when speaking of her babies. Her babies's babies too!
While she had to face the incredible sadness of losing her first child, she did take solace in watching all of us grow into caring human beings with an abundance of compassion (it's in the DNA), as well as having the joy of becoming a grandma.
The lessons she inadvertently taught us were not found in textbooks but as a result of her totally innocent outlook on life. Despite having experienced some of the worst results of human behavior, she always looked for the best in people. She was never bitter about her lack of opportunities in life and always applauded the achievement of others. While some of her actions could very well drive us crazy, we always knew she loved us with the purest of hearts.
Tomorrow Sharon will drag me up to Vestal Hills to place a flower on mom's grave as it is indeed the right thing to do. Today however, I talk to you from my own heart and would ask that you pass this on in some form to the girls as I lack the savvy to send one letter to several people - I am after all my mother's daughter. Your sister too!
Love always,
Donna
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Date: 2008-10-27 08:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-29 10:52 am (UTC)