by jphilo | Mar 12, 2013 | Family
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.
by jphilo | Mar 7, 2008 | Family
This week has been a strange one. One reason is that our daughter is home for spring break. A lot of my time has been concentrated on her rather than on my writing and the change in routine is making me a little crazy. Another reason is this unrelenting cold weather.
I’m bound by an oath not to complain about the weather so I won’t. Instead, I’ll make a few casual observations. First, my brother and his wife married twenty-one years ago today. As we showered them with rice outside the church in Clear Lake on a sunny Saturday afternoon, the well wishers were in shirtsleeves.
Second, my dad died eleven years ago this week. So that many years ago today, our family spent the afternoon at the funeral home. My daughter and her two cousins (ages 8, 8, and 4 at the time) stood outside the funeral home in their light, spring Easter dresses greeting mourners with the following information. “Go this door if you want food or need the bathroom. Go through that door if you want to see the body.”
The girls were a big hit. So was the food and the bathroom and the body. The weather was a big hit, too, especially for the grave diggers. I’m sure they appreciated the fact that the frost was already out of the ground in 1997 since they ended up digging two graves for Dad. On their first try, they dug in the wrong spot and found the ancestor, buried in an unmarked grave, in the exact spot our elderly relatives said he was. Nice to know our family history is accurate.
Because of our family history, I know this March has been uncommonly cold, except for the short lived spring break up this past Sunday afternoon. Even my Alaskan husband, who turns fifty-two tomorrow and has gotten used to grilling something tasty on his birthday, thinks the winter has been too long. But we’re a tough, Iowa family. We’ll survive. So far this winter we’ve weathered numerous ice and snow storms, the housing debacle and the 2008 caucuses. We can survive a few more challenges while we wait for spring.
Losing an hour of sleep to Daylight Savings Time? Piece of cake. Hiding Easter eggs in the snow with the holiday so early this March? Not a problem. But don’t get any grandiose ideas about scheduling Easter sunrise services outdoors this spring.
Our family’s tough, but we’re not stupid. And we’ve got the history to prove it.
