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Labor Day Weekend Will Be Different this Year

Labor Day Weekend Will Be Different this Year

by | Aug 31, 2023 | Family

Labor Day weekend will be different this year. For as long as I can remember the holiday was more about celebrating my mother’s birthday than celebrating laborers. Then again she was born on September 3, which was Labor Day in her birth year of 1928. Which means her birthday was and will always be a celebration of labor, though not of laborers.

Because Mom’s birthday usually occurred during a three day weekend, it often coincided with gatherings of our extended family. Though Labor Day weekend will be different this year, that much will remain the same.  Our annual cousins’ reunion––there are 39 of us, a number that swells quickly when you throw in our spouses and descendants–– will be held the day before Mom’s birthday.

This year will be quite different in other ways. Mom left this world on June 23 and will not be with us in body on her birthday. Then again, our memories of her and of her seven siblings who waited patiently for her to join them in heaven, will be present in full force. We will tell our family stories. We will share favorite memories of our parents. They were all farmers and housewives and teachers, remarkable people though not well-known outside our circle and never, never showy.

Since some of my cousins weren’t able to attend Mom’s celebration of life, I will take the memory book the funeral home compiled for them to see. I’ll also bring the scrapbook, filled with photos of our parents and their parents, which I made the year Mom turned 80. How can that be 15 years ago? I will also take the birthday cake she loved best, homemade German chocolate cake. Not the cupcake version on the chocolate bar pictured above, but the traditional version pictured below. The cake is delicious, moist and very big. A good thing in an extended family as large as ours.

My piece will probably be on the salty side, not because I have a heavy hand with that ingredient, but because I will be crying as I eat. My tears will be good. Sad. Joyful. Healthy. I expect them to flow freely as my cousins who knew and loved Mom teach me what they already know. She, like their parents who went before her, is alive and well in our hearts.

Happy birthday, Mom, from all of us.

In loving memory of Dorothea Lorraine Stratton
September 3, 1928-June 23, 2023

Three Thoughts for Thursday

Three Thoughts for Thursday

by | Sep 18, 2014 | Three Thoughts for Thursday

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  1. Encouragement = 1 day when 2 nieces from different sides of the family ask for advice. They have no idea how much that means to their old auntie.
  2. Tuesday was the last day to pick up produce through our CSA. Oh, fresh melons, tomatoes, sweet corn and much more, you will be dearly missed!
  3. Could there be a correlation between this year’s early frost and the early appearance of pumpkin spice lattes in coffee shops? What do you think?

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Top Ten Blessings of a Large, Extended Family

Top Ten Blessings of a Large, Extended Family

by | Mar 12, 2013 | Family

Hess Cousins

Over the weekend, Mom’s side of the family gathered to say good-bye to her brother Leo. Our time together was a reminder of the many blessings of a large extended family. Here are my top ten:

10.  Mom (and her kids) always have a place to stay when visiting her hometown.

9.    When a high school reunion committee includes Mom’s name in a hometown newspaper listing of those for whom they need contact information, someone will see the ad and reply.

8.   Everyone knows Lange’s Cafe is the place to go for supper as a family.

7.   One topic of conversation at supper is the general health and well-being of our geraniums.

6.   Though the older generation of our family was not outwardly demonstrative, our generation has become very huggy, and we even say, “I love you” to one another.

5.   When those from far away are driving home, those who don’t have so far to travel call to see how the trip is going.

4.   When one person says, “Mom, Dad, can I have a dime to go swimming?” everyone else responds, “In a half hour, once your meal has time to settle.”

3.   When Mom’s nephews and nieces look at her, they see her not only as an increasingly frail and elderly woman, but as the young firecracker who used to make them mind, drive the tractor, bale hay, and milk cows.

2.   Eyes light up at the mention of fresh kohlrabi from Grandma and Grandpa’s garden and of Grandma’s tapioca fruit salad at Christmas.

1.   When travel complications mean Mom’s the only member of her generation able to attend a funeral, she never feels alone because every niece and nephew in the large crowd of nieces and nephews make sure she knows she’s loved and her presence there is important to them.