No post last night because I went bowling with Hubby at his firm's bowling league. We are normally part of a team, but this year he has class on Thursday nights so it wouldn't have worked out. I kicked his butt.
Nevermind that he has a bum ankle and was a bit on the tipsy side.
I have a short day at work today because I am headed up to Rhode Island (picking my sister up in Philly on the way) for the memorial service of my great-grandmother, "Mammie." She passed away late this summer. I am sad to say I don't have a lot of memories of her, but the ones I do are pleasant and cherished. One of them is vague, but I remember being at her home in Rhode Island when I was a child and she had a huge container of marbles. I feel like my sister and I used to dump them all over the place (no doubt) and then pick out which ones were our favorite. I think I actually have one somewhere back at my parents' house tucked away in a little glass 
container that used to belong to Mammie as well... like the one at left, but mine has a green cover. There are also memories, also quite vague, of the Family Christmases we used to have in Rhode Island. At the time, Mammie and her daughter, my Grama, lived there, as well as one of my Mom's sisters and her family. We would make the special trip down from VT to share a huge Family Christmas with everyone in the common room of the place where Mammie lived... at least I'm pretty sure that's where it must have been, I remember the big room from photos. Family Christmas seems smaller to me (in size) now, but maybe it's just because I'm bigger. However, the importance of the day is without question one of the highest of any day of the year for me and I'm sure for many of my other family as well.
container that used to belong to Mammie as well... like the one at left, but mine has a green cover. There are also memories, also quite vague, of the Family Christmases we used to have in Rhode Island. At the time, Mammie and her daughter, my Grama, lived there, as well as one of my Mom's sisters and her family. We would make the special trip down from VT to share a huge Family Christmas with everyone in the common room of the place where Mammie lived... at least I'm pretty sure that's where it must have been, I remember the big room from photos. Family Christmas seems smaller to me (in size) now, but maybe it's just because I'm bigger. However, the importance of the day is without question one of the highest of any day of the year for me and I'm sure for many of my other family as well.The most vivid memories I have of Mammie though, because they are the most recent, are 
from visiting her at the nursing home where she was cared for during the last five years of her life. It was always a very anxious experience for me because there were always a lot of sad, lonely elders lining the hallways next to Mammie's room. I think it's the one woman who kept saying "help me" when we visited once. It hurt on the inside to see and hear that. I guess I don't do well surrounded by so much loneliness... or whatever that lingering feeling is in such a place. Plus, it was always a gamble as to how Mammie would be doing. She suffered from Alzheimer's and often didn't know who people were. I was blessed though. Blessed because I can't remember a time when I went to visit and she didn't at least mostly remember who I was. Sometimes it took a little explanation, but she always seemed to light up in her face once she realized it was me. I'm sure she had this happy reaction every time she could "properly" remember a loved one, but that doesn't make it any less special to me. I am sad that I could not be there for the final days and hours of her life, as so many of my family members were, but I am so thankful that I'll be there tomorrow as she is put to rest.
from visiting her at the nursing home where she was cared for during the last five years of her life. It was always a very anxious experience for me because there were always a lot of sad, lonely elders lining the hallways next to Mammie's room. I think it's the one woman who kept saying "help me" when we visited once. It hurt on the inside to see and hear that. I guess I don't do well surrounded by so much loneliness... or whatever that lingering feeling is in such a place. Plus, it was always a gamble as to how Mammie would be doing. She suffered from Alzheimer's and often didn't know who people were. I was blessed though. Blessed because I can't remember a time when I went to visit and she didn't at least mostly remember who I was. Sometimes it took a little explanation, but she always seemed to light up in her face once she realized it was me. I'm sure she had this happy reaction every time she could "properly" remember a loved one, but that doesn't make it any less special to me. I am sad that I could not be there for the final days and hours of her life, as so many of my family members were, but I am so thankful that I'll be there tomorrow as she is put to rest.
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