Yesterday was Father’s Day, and like many, we decided to visit my Dad’s grave. The weather was cloudy and rainy at the time when we visited, and because of it the balloons that were brought to decorate graves were bowing more than standing tall. Dad was buried in October of 2005, 2+ years ago, and I miss him still. The night before Father’s Day my daughter visited her Dad, we had a lot of laughs, and also a few tears. I started talking a bit about the day he died, and she drew more out of me than I thought I’d share. He died at home in the bed that he shared with my Mom for over 50 years, I was staying with Mom because we knew the time was close, and was able to be with him at the end, which, even though he had been ill for over 5 years, still seemed to come suddenly.
As I stood next to his grave at the beautiful, peaceful George Washington Memorial Park graveyard, I thanked the Lord that Dad was now with Him; and as my husband and I tried everything we could to get the balloons to stand rather than bow, I laughed and said “Dad, if you can see us, you see we’re trying to figure things out, just like you did with every little thing”…Dad was a brilliant engineer.
Below is a statue that I love that is at the entrance to the Cemetery of George Washington on bended knee with head bowed in prayer. It is better seen “in person” as it is a large statue, and beautifully detailed. The side view is even better than this, maybe next time I’ll capture that…my husband took this one quickly in the rain.
I hope all of you had a special day yesterday remembering your Dad’s, enjoying your Dad’s, or watching your children enjoy their Dad’s.
At this time 4 years ago, we were well into the planning of our daughters outdoor wedding, and indoor reception. I may already have mentioned that she was married at the New Jersey Botanical Gardens, and then we had her reception at a local lake-front lodge. The weather was perfect!Because we are in New Jersey, we didn’t have the opportunity to use chair cover rentals in San Diego, but we did have to rent chairs for the guests at the botanical gardens. Still, I enjoyed visiting this beautiful website, what magnificent pictures showing how beautiful a table can look with wedding linen rentals in San Diego If you have wedding plans in the future for a member of your family, take in the breath-taking pictures of wedding linens in San Diego, they are beautiful and inspiring!
A day or so ago, I gave you a view of our home from the street, here’s what we see out our bedroom window. The leaves are just beginning to grow on the trees, so you are not seeing them in their full green glory, but it’s been quiet, beautiful and serene for the past few days.
I have a swing on the deck that I love to sit in on quiet evenings, as the sun is just beginning to go down. This picture wasn’t taken at that time of day, but it is beautiful looking across the lake…the water is still, with only the fish eating causing rings that spread out, out, and out some more, joining rings formed by other fish. An occasional mallard will fly and land on the surface. Geese will join them, and now the little gosling’s and ducklings are appearing.
This is our “little cabin on the lake”, it is set down over a foot below the the lawn and garden, with a rock wall that my husband worked on all weekend, he reset the stones which had shifted a lot in the years since we moved here.
Yes, in this cozy little cabin with a lake in the back, we have raised two children, and now the cabin is just the right size for the two of us…or three, as our son is still living with us at present. Will we ever move? I don’t know, it would be hard to leave behind the natural beauty that surrounds us, and all the memories we’ve made here. Time will tell.
One great thing about being a Baby Boomer, at least one my age, born in 1951, is that you have new choices. You can dye your hair, or you can let it go Grey. You can get a face-lift or keep those wrinkles.
I’ve opted to “go natural”, enjoy the new crow’s feet that are multiplying around my eyes and wrinkles that surround my smile. I’m letting the Grey hair that glistens in the sunlight when I look at myself in the rear view mirror of my little red Volkswagen Cabrio convertible keep on going grey.
I’ve told this story before, but when I was in my early 20′s, that’s about 30something years ago, I was at one of those hippie Jesus festivals standing in a circle holding hands and singing, and looked at the woman next to me with her denim jacket, long greying hair pulled back in a clip, and her weather-wrinkled face and thought she was beautiful, and said “when I get older, I want to look like that”, I’m on my way!
Oh, you want to see a picture? I’ll get on that right away and have one for you within the week, the one I’ve been using is a couple years old, time for an update!
Do you remember the show “The Wonder Years” that lasted a quite a few seasons after it’s release date in 1988? It was a show that many Baby Boomers can relate to, it was our time and stirred up so many memories. When my brother and I would watch the show, we could relate, right down to the late ’50′s to early ’60′s suburban developments with their perfect streets, sidewalks, neatly mowed lawns and, for us at least, ranch style houses.
Keeping a perfect lawn was a BIG deal in those days…I suppose it is in many places today, but living where we do now, in a rural woodsy area some 40+ years later, it’s not our lifestyle…we’re more a product of the hippie years, living close to the earth, natural living, and all that came from those years when we decided to rebel against “the establishment”. Of course enjoying nature and natural living is one of the GOOD things that came from those times, but back to those lawns.
Most men were out early on Saturday mowing & feeding their lawns, and keeping them trimmed along the sidewalks. Almost every front yard had two neat “squares” of green, parted by the sidewalk that went up to the front door, and a little strip of green along the road between the main sidewalk and curb.
My Dad would brush off this ritual between men of keeping the perfect lawn as “keeping up with the Joneses” as if it was something to be scorned, as if he were above all that. But believe me, he was right out there “keeping up” himself, and I have proof of his passion for the competition, think I’ll save that for my “Memories and Nostalgia” blog.
