My sweet cousin whom I grew up playing Barbies and petting puppies and making toadhouses with sent me a gift two days ago. One I want to share with y’all tonight. She wrote me about something that happened that reminded her of my Mama. A Maemae/Aunt Barbara sighting, I like to call it. In the middle of missing Mama and grieving and remembering, it is such a precious gift to have someone else take time to remember with me.
My cousin and her daughter E, who is six months older than my Aub, travel once a week for E’s orchestra rehearsal. (She can play, y’all.) My cousin goes along and takes her knitting and enjoys her time with her sweet girl and her time for uninterrupted knitting while E is rehearsing. This is her story–
Last night as we were leaving, there was one of the orchestra members leaving at the same time but just slightly ahead of us. E told me she plays flute and is very good, but is also very sweet. She reminds me of Aunt Barbara. She is built like her and even has some of the same features. Well, as we are walking to our cars, she begins to skip. Now this is not a young lady. She is at least in her 60’s. I thought she had one of the songs they had rehearsed in her head that encouraged her to skip. So she turns around and sees us and I asked her what song was in her head to make her skip. She said, “Oh, no. I believe that the older you get the more you need to skip.” All I could think of was your mom.
Oh y’all. The tears. That is who my Mama was. She loved this life and the people in it, and it seemed her spirit was often skipping even when her body could not.
Tonight I’m thankful for my sweet cousin who took time to share this story and who said it was okay to share it here. I’m thankful she loves my Mama and misses her and still looks for her in this world too. I’m grateful for my Mama, who loved life. Her joie de vivre was a blessing to so many.
And I’m thankful for this that happened tonight on the way home from our walk with Miss Sophie.
I know it’s hard to tell, but when we were nearing home, our Princess began to skip. She was singing and skipping, and I gave thanks that she has a bit of her Maemae in her too.
May you all have a skip-worthy day. You’re never too old. Love to all.
I Might Need A Nap 