My Mom and me.
My Mom has always been there for me. For the first seven years, it was just the two of us. Life was magical. My life was full of awesome cousins, my first friends. The picture above was taken in the upstairs apartment in the big white house diagonally across from the former location of Lowell’s Dairy.
Here I am with Joe at three years old in front of the willow tree I loved to play under.
In the lower level of this house, Uncle Jackie and Aunt Aggie lived with my first best friend cousin. He had a cool red (or was it green?) metal car and tractor you could pedal with your feet.
Here is Christmas 1956 with Joe, Me, Karen, and Bruce.
I remember one Christmas when Santa Claus arrived on the roof of our house, with heavy footsteps and a loud, “Ho, Ho, Ho!” He came inside our house and asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I told him his eyebrows looked just like Uncle Jackie’s eyebrows.
I was asking Joe what he thought about this. He was pondering my question.
Joe was also a very good sport when I invited him to my tea party with my new bride doll.
If I remember right, the tea party was more like a juice bar. Dancing bride doll had elastic straps on her feet which I could slip my feet into so she could dance with me. I must add that there were times he also let me drive his car in the driveway.
Mom had a third birthday party for me which I remember in that upper apartment. While Aunt Aggie, Aunt Bea (“the one that goes ‘buzz” I would add to distinguish her from Aunt Dee), Aunt Gert, and Mom’s sister, Aunt Terry, visited in the other room, I partied with my friend cousins.
Here is my third birthday party with Karen, Bruce, Gail, Trudy? or Alan? and Joe.
Mom made sure there were birthday parties, visiting Memere and Pepere in Mendon and in their Wardsboro cabin in Vermont on the Wardsboro River, and Uncle Victor and Aunt Terry (my real father’s sister), and more cousins. Having two aunts named Terry was a bit confusing to my younger self.
Pepere would often hide an egg under my little wooden pull toy chicken before I got up in the morning. I always wondered why the egg was so cold. He always made me check under the chicken on the outside front step, and it was always there.
Uncle Joe and Aunt Edwina, and more cousins, had a cabin directly across the ice-cold raging river from Memere and Peper’s cabin. First there were large stones that were put in there so we could cross from yard to yard without having to walk up the street to get to their property. Crossing the river was quicker, although to my little legs, seemed more treacherous. Later a wooden bridge was constructed. I used to have a wooden swing with long ropes tied to a long tree branch near the river. It seemed a magical spot to swing.
I visited my once home away from home one winter day with my husband John. I was following a deer’s footprints in the snow. They went right up to the front door. If I remember right, there is still an apple tree in the front yard. You see the shadow of its branches on the left side of this picture.
Aunt Edwina’s oldest daughter was named after Mom. She and Mom were close. Sometimes she would sleep over at our upstairs apartment. I remember one day, as if it were yesterday, she was sleeping on the couch, but I wanted to play with her. So, I went over to her sleeping self, raised one of her eyelids, and said, “Are you in there?”
Let’s just say she woke up very quickly and we all laughed. It was one of those things that startles you so much, you just remember it.
Uncle Victor and Aunt Terry (my mother’s brother and real father’s sister) had also had a cabin, and even more cousins, on the other side of the Wardsboro River down the river a way. And a bit further, closer to the church, Uncle Eddie and Aunt Rita and even more cousins, had yet another cabin on the Wardsboro River. We used to hop on the stones across the river when it was calmer. I remember summertime cookouts, homemade swings near the river, and catching fireflies with cousins in the twilight hours.
Uncle Leo used to scare me, but Aunt Dee (“not the one that goes buzz”), Mom and I would often go shopping and periodically visit various Catholic Churches on particular days together. Uncle Leo and my cousin Leo had the biggest laughs of all my relatives, except perhaps Uncle Dedo (Aldore).
There were amazing and delicious clambakes at Uncle Dedo’s and Aunt Pauline’s backyard, right next door to Uncle Joe and Aunt Edwina’s house in Mendon, and of course, more cousins. I had a blast with my cousins. There was a scary, mean pig in a nearby farm all the cousins were urged to stay away from.
It was unique synergy that my present husband also attended one of Uncle Dedo and Aunt Pauline’s famous cookouts on the invitation of the neighboring farmer with that scary pig. When we were driving through Mendon one day, I pointed out the home of the clambakes. My husband told me of the time he was there and was also told to stay away from the scary pig.
I also remember being very young and going with Mom to Ouellet’s Farm and another time traveling to Rhode Island to visit Uncle Luzio’s home right on the ocean. I believe these were part of our extended family.
Aunt Eva and Uncle Lee came up from Mississippi to visit Mom and me, and everyone else in our large family. This was always a fun time. One time Uncle Lee and his brother came up from Mississippi working on the pipeline. Mom was introduced to his brother. I called him Uncle Moe. Evidently Mom liked him as much as I did, so she married him. And I finally got a baby sister I had always wanted.
There were many days with Aunt Terry and Uncle Tom. Aunt Terry had a large garden, and we were often the recipients of the produce. Aunt Terry would come up to the house and taught Mom how to make Ratatouille. It was delicious. The house would smell so great.
Aunt Terry was also my Girl Scout leader, along with her daughter, who was also a friend cousin in my class. I thoroughly enjoyed those days and remember them fondly.
Uncle Herbie and Aunt Bea (“the one that goes buzz”) had an interesting yard that fascinated me as a young child. It was wonderful with flowers and blooming shrubs all over her yard, and more beloved cousins, of course. One day Aunt Bea gave Mom some myrtle flowers, which are also known as periwinkle. They are a fantastic low ground cover with shiny green leaves, blooming at least twice a year. Since they love shade, Mom put them under the wooden stairs on the side of the red house on the hill. When Mom and Dad came to live with us, I brought some of those same myrtles to our Derby, CT home. Then when we retired, I brought some of those same myrtle flowers to our home in the old forest where I live now.
During Memere and Pepere’s 50th Golden Wedding Anniversary party held at Lakeview Ballroom, I remember Uncle Herbie swooping me up in his arms while announcing that we were going to dance the polka. I barely had time to tell him that I did not know how to dance the polka, but then we were off! I seem to remember passing every other couple on the dance floor. It was the most exhilarating dance experience of my entire life!
Mom was also very fond of another of her sisters, who I called Aunt Gert, and her husband, Uncle Nel. I enjoyed playing with these cousins too. Cousins are the beautiful flowers in my garden of Life. I treasure each and every one of them.
I wish I got to meet my Aunt Noella before she passed on from this life. It seems back in the days of a Catholic marrying a Protestant, that that was enough to sever any future relationship between mother, father, and child, regardless of the love Aunt Noella had for her husband.
I find this so sad that any child shuns a parent, or any parent shuns a child for the rest of their life. This only consigns the person who is doing the sunning to reincarnate again and again until they learn what truly loving someone means.
It’s all about LOVE.
I dedicate this post in my blog to my Mom, who passed away on Monday, after eighty-eight years of life. She also had a tremendous sense of humor until the day she died. Everyone who met her loved her. I visited her around noon on Monday. Again, it was just her and me in her final hours, and my loving husband John. After a few bouts of cancer, she passed from this world. Now Mom peacefully rests in the arms of the angels.
I am also dedicating my next trilogy of books to Mom, who taught me what truly loving means. She loved all her brothers and sisters, and they loved her. Mom was number thirteen of fourteen children, with twin brothers dying at birth. I hope and pray that all my cousins know how much Mom truly loved all of you.
Mom was the last surviving member of her family of parents, brothers, and sisters. Now it is up to all of us cousins, and everyone else who is touched by the love of her life, to remember what is important in life, which involves forgiving, loving, and having as much fun as you can with the people in your life. Life goes by so quickly. I hope you treasure each moment.
I spent this day of healing, writing this post, and remembering all the love my Mom shared with me and all of you.
God Bless You All