Love Of Art

Every so often my mind wanders back to a simple time in my life and I find myself surrounded by the shadows of people who have gone on, hopefully to a better existance.

There have been so many people who have touched my life, even in simple ways.  Just knowing them, even briefly, has made me a better person I hope.

When you are little you just take it for granted that everyone around you will be there forever....death has no concept, no reality for a child, it's beyond comprehension.  I was luckier than most...an uncle & an aunt died before I was born, everyone else basically stayed pretty much in good health until I was 17.

My Dad's Father was walking back home from work, crossing a busy street and a car came careening madly past the stop sign and slammed into him, tossing him across the busy boulevard.  Believe it or not it was a doctor who hit him, he was rushing home from the hospital higher up on the hill...speed does kill.  Grandpa didn't die that day, but he received injuries so bad that his mind never recovered, so we did lose him that day I think.  I hate hospitals but I went because I had to...I sat by his bed and talked to him...he looked at me with vacant eyes and asked me "Is your name Helen?"  He thought I was his daughter....he lost all the years of my being...to him I did not exist...he had no grandchildren....sad memory.

My Grandmom on my Dad's side lived to be 102 years old and not in some nursing home....my Mom & Dad watched over her, cared for her and made sure she enjoyed her life right up to the end.  Her life was remarkable, Grandma Sophie was born in 1889 the same year that the Statue of Liberty started to go up in New York, she rode in horse drawn carriages, used a real "ice" box as a refrigerator, lived in a cold water flat and lived a life that saw all the marvelous inventions of our day come into existance almost like magic in front of her eyes.  She was of very hard stock with a very strong work ethnic, she kept going no matter what.  Sophie loved all her grandchildren..she had nine, 15 great grandchildren and seven great-great-grandkids.  I learned the magic of wishing on a star, while staring at the moon seated on bench by her side....she also passed on that the "full" moon makes "some" people nuts! Thanks Gran!

My southern grandparents taught me a lot, to be fair, to care about people and how to enjoy life.  My Grandma Lee would never, ever think of going downtown without being completely decked out to the nines.  She was in a dress, with hose, small heels, hat and gloves to match! I can remember sitting on her soft featherbed watching her as she sat at her wonderfully full dressing table...soft powder, lipstick applied...then onto opening her jewerly draw filled with special baubels that she would fleetingly caress, wondering which would be best with her outfit.  I swear I can smell the perfume she used and the Noxema lotion that she swore by.  Grandma Lee had platinum blonde hair...naturally..as she aged it stayed platinum never turned grey...it was one vanity that she allowed herself.  To go to the beauty parlor and hear the girls exclaim "Oh my! look at the color of your hair! You don't do nothing to it?" She'd laugh and tell them "I'm all natural".   

Oh, it's getting late and I will continue more on this tommorrow......