So many people remarked on how beautiful the roses appeared as they cascaded down the side of the casket.
Sent from Arizona by the George and Edna Shimp family.
Category Archives: Just Me – AmeliaJake
One week
It’s about eight now; well, a little after, and I’m sitting here in my flannel pajama pants and a blanket around my shoulders. And at noon we’ll be heading out to go to the cemetery for the 1 pm service. It won’t take long. Then it will have been one week almost to the hour since Mother died here at the Peanut Butter Cafe & Roadhouse and when she was laid to rest beside her father in the old part of Oak Lawn in Sturgis, Michigan.
It will take some getting used to this business of Mother having passed away. Yesterday, I found myself thinking I’d have to tell her about the surprise caller at the visitation . . . then I remembered.
Some pictures
Mother and Der Bingle at Christmastime, probably 2000. Sydney is probably smelling “cat” on Mother.
About three years ago – Mother’s holiday beer, Eliot Ness. Over the years, Der Bingle delighted in finding exotically named beers for her infrequent sips.
Maybe five years ago: Apple Festival, sitting on the straw bales at the Settler’s Roost (Swine Barn) listening to the Well Spring Fiddlers. Summer and Alison. Nice hat.
Apple Festival the year of the shattered ankle for Grandson Robert. Another cool hat.
One of Mother’s pre-Christmas meals. No hat.
To all things there is a season
Mother passed away Saturday. Visitation is 2-4 and 6-8 Friday with private burial services on Saturday.
Today I went shopping for something nice to wear.
Tomorrow I will have my hair color perked up.
I may go home then to look for pictures of Mother at different points in her life. Maybe the one where she is about one and wearing a polka dot dress with polka dot bloomers. That would be this one:
Found in iphoto
Scrolling up the page, I came upon these pictures of Mother and Tiffany in better days:
Sarah E. Grismore and Tiffany
Banana Birthday Boy
I went looking for a picture of LZP – whose birthday is today – in his banana suit, but I couldn’t find it right off the bat in iphoto. I going to have to refer you to a previous post – THIS ONE – and before you click to view, remember he is a trained professional. Do not try this at home until you have completed the relevant classes from the LZP Correspondence School of It’s So Crazy It Just Might Work.
Clearing throat sound . . . One, Two, Three
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR BANANA HEAD. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU.
* I just remembered LZP was the one who sent us the Peeps CD and Summer loved it and played the chirping songs over and over and over again. Suddenly, from out of the blue, I am thinking Banana Split. Or, we could put him in a plastic bag so he will be all brown and spotted and rotten by Halloween . . . with gnats hovering around him.
Long day
Ah, yesterday was a long day. I started this post at about 10 pm and I opened my computer to see it staring at me – just the title, nothing else. I don’t know what happened really between then and now, except that I obviously closed the lid. For my mother to worry about being sick, finally go to the doctor and come to think she was fixably ill and then, boom, to find out she has advanced pancreatic cancer is a terrible thing for her to have to face. To know you are alive and that soon you will not be so . . . beyond accepting. To go from promising to eat better and build up your strength on one day and choosing hospice on the next is . . .
And that is where we are at this time. We are at life’s grammatical three dots that say we are at a loss to truly describe what is coming in the next minutes.
Because we are fascinated
I got this email from LZP:
This is weird……..
BATHROOM PAINTED FLOOR !!!
*IMAGINE YOU ARE AT A PARTY ….
* Tenth floor of a hi-rise building….*
*AND THEN YOU HAVE TO VISIT THE BATHROOM…. *
*You open the door…. **
NOW, REMEMBER,*
*THE FLOOR IS JUST* A PAINTED FLOOR!**
KINDA TAKES YOUR BREATH AW AY…..* *DOESN’T IT?*
Scroll sloooooooowly…..
to this picture
down
down
here.
The Colin visit
Colin and his mother above
and below
Sunday morning
Robert and Alison are heading off to Indianapolis to see Colin; Mother’s reading the newspapers on the porch here with me; Summer’s wooing the cat; Sydney’s still in “cat shock” ; and Mother just told Robert and Alison that while they are gone she’s getting a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken for herself, Cameron and Summer. Those dudes love it. Der Bingle doesn’t care for chicken and neither do I . . . add that to my list of pumpkin pie and watermelon. Robert and Alison will probably “rough it” at some restaurant.
Last night we all watched the Michigan – Iowa game: Mother and I on the porch and Summer, Cameron and Der Bingle in the living room. I fell asleep early, early in the game, quite a while before Mother did. She and Der Bingle had a laugh about that. I came to with about 13 minutes into the fourth quarter and was certain Iowa was way behind . . . but it was 23-21 in Iowa’s favor so I had to sweat it out with everyone else. I was afraid Iowa would lose and they would say I jinxed them by waking up.
I am streaming my consciousness here – it keeps my fingers busy.