my great-aunt maude passed away thursday night, so i made the trek up to virginia just for the day on saturday. the small town feel of their little town used to be more like a small, bleeding cut. now i'd say it's beginning to hemmorhage.
as a kid, i loved visiting the town. since my parents grew up there & their families still remained there, despite them leaving, i viewed it as a trip to the country. there were farms & wide open spaces & woods to explore & creeks to jump. not that i didn't have the creeks & woods at my house, but it was different. more freeing.
now the town is claustrophobic. when i go visit with family (which is slowly dwindling, the drawbacks to having an older & aging family, i suppose), there is only so much to do. most visiting is limited to sitting around older people's living rooms, hearing of their aches & pains. still, i could sit for hours listening to their recollections of life in this town when they were younger.
they shared tales of hijinks & loves & losses & excitement & fear. they really lived the human life.
maude was a wonderful, spry lady with a nieve outlook on the world. she was such a contrast to my grandmother who was the oldest sister & always had her head correctly on her shoulders, perhaps a bit strait-laced to maude's frippery. maude was still kicking her terry-cloth sweatsuits & blue jeans until december, when she fell & broke her arm.
she really lived such a life, reflecting God's love to others, even if she may not have had the life she wanted. she & her husband were married for about 20 years before he passed away of heart trouble in the mid-1960s. despite her great love for children of all ages, she & clarence never were able to produce heirs, so she had plenty of grandchildren vicariously through her neices & nephews & various friends.
what a testament to a life well-spent. it is my hope i'll one day have a legacy of joy rather than sorrow.
as a kid, i loved visiting the town. since my parents grew up there & their families still remained there, despite them leaving, i viewed it as a trip to the country. there were farms & wide open spaces & woods to explore & creeks to jump. not that i didn't have the creeks & woods at my house, but it was different. more freeing.
now the town is claustrophobic. when i go visit with family (which is slowly dwindling, the drawbacks to having an older & aging family, i suppose), there is only so much to do. most visiting is limited to sitting around older people's living rooms, hearing of their aches & pains. still, i could sit for hours listening to their recollections of life in this town when they were younger.
they shared tales of hijinks & loves & losses & excitement & fear. they really lived the human life.
maude was a wonderful, spry lady with a nieve outlook on the world. she was such a contrast to my grandmother who was the oldest sister & always had her head correctly on her shoulders, perhaps a bit strait-laced to maude's frippery. maude was still kicking her terry-cloth sweatsuits & blue jeans until december, when she fell & broke her arm.
she really lived such a life, reflecting God's love to others, even if she may not have had the life she wanted. she & her husband were married for about 20 years before he passed away of heart trouble in the mid-1960s. despite her great love for children of all ages, she & clarence never were able to produce heirs, so she had plenty of grandchildren vicariously through her neices & nephews & various friends.
what a testament to a life well-spent. it is my hope i'll one day have a legacy of joy rather than sorrow.
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on 07 March 2005 at 3/07/2005 11:18:00 AM.
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