Saturday, April 16, 2011

Happy Birthday Aunt Millie



I often think of you Millie. Today on what would have been your 101st birthday, you'd be pleased that the forsythia bushes your brother planted are in full bloom and the same daffodils and hyacinths are still coming up where they always did in the yard...after all these years. Some of those bulbs must be 50 years old.
-
Every year I look--and sure enough, even the ones that used to line the steps where the old "bum" school was...are still there, partially hidden, in a straight line up the hill to where the school once sat. Though the school was demolished way before my time, and the steps are gone, too, but you can see the pretty yellow daffodils in the now overgrown lot.
-
One of your neighbors managed to make it to 100 years old.
They played the Helena Polka on the radio this week for Helen. I saw her walking the street up until a few years ago.
Now she is in the nursing home.
-
I remember our days picking blackberries when I was a kid, and I especially miss the home made pierogies every Friday during Lent. I picked up a dozen from the Polish Church today.
Seven dollars a dozen! You'd be appalled. A little flour, some potatoes. But who has the time now to make them yourself?
-
I remember how you used to tell me to "live forward" not "backwards." That's as good of advice as anyone has given me. But sometimes I do look back...at old pictures. I think about how
life changes so quickly...and suddenly the people you care about are just gone.
-
And you miss them forever.

No comments: