Lessons in Grief – Part 4

I took the pictures of the photos in this post a few weeks ago.  I was fine, even kind of methodical, going through the box of pics, looking for the happiest smiles.

However, when I sat down to start this post, I was looking through the pictures in my phone’s gallery and started sobbing.

Just a bonus lesson in grief, I guess…

Here’s how it started:  The Mom didn’t particularly like having her picture taken.  She’d tolerate it but you could tell she wasn’t comfortable with cameras.  So, when I was looking through the photographs I brought home from my mother’s apartment, I noticed that her biggest smiles and uninhibited camera engagement were when she was traveling.

Usually she booked tours, where everything was done for her, from the meals to the itinerary to the transportation.  All she had to do was get to the airport, meet up with the group and enjoy herself.  My introverted mother made friends all over the world as she got to see all the sights on her bucket list.

Here are the happiest samples:

Olympic Stadium, Athens

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Books of a Lifetime ~ I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

This is the second in my Books of a Lifetime series. 

There are three books that have been my favorites for a very long time.  Other books have touched me and have jockeyed for positions in my top 25, but these three books are special and finite in my heart.  In no particular order, I’m starting with I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg.

I’ll get to the other two.  I Promise 😊

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A Sawdust Birthday

Thought I’d do a blog post about my 66th, since there’s too many pics for Instagram. 

It’s been a couple of years (remember, Covid…) since we really did much for my b’day, so I was happy to plan this little outing.  July birthdays are kind of crap, really.  When you’re little, you miss the class birthday party and when you’re older, it’s summer, hot and most attractions are crowded and miserable…  But, fortunately, this was a Good One!

Onward, Birthday Girl!

What is the proper way for a former Bostonian to begin her birthday?  

A Boston Cream donut from Dunkin’, naturally!

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Books of a Lifetime ~ Little Women

This new series was inspired by John Scalzi’s blog, Whatever.  He recently wrote a series of posts, titled A Personal History of Music, and every day of June 2022 he picked a song and described why that song was important to him.  I thought that might be a fun thing to do, too.  Only with books.

As you might have guessed, I’ve been reading for a long time. And, naturally, there have been books and authors that have resonated with me at different times in my life for different reasons.

First up ~ Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

I don’t remember how old I was but I’d guess eight or nine.  Around Christmas, my Girl Scout troop went to Boston to see a play based on the first chapter or two of the book.  I distinctly recall sitting in the dark theatre amid rows and rows of people (I think it was also my first live play), attention riveted to the stage where four poor girls made the best of the holidays.  A Christmas tree glowed in a corner of the theatre.  I was hooked!  I needed to see what else happened to those March girls.

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Things I Like Thursday – The Book Stephen King Sent Me

Wandering in the Christmas section of a mall store, probably in mid-November of 1983, I came across some really cute ornaments – sparkly spiders in a sparkly white web.  I bought two and sent one off to Stephen King.  I’d been reading his work since discovering Carrie in the New Book section at the Wilmington Public Library in the spring of 1974.  I loved everything he wrote and I thought that ornament would be a nice Thank You for all the hours of entertainment he’d given me.  I sent it off with a note and forgot about it.

A few weeks later, I got a notice to pick up a package that was too big for our P.O. Box.  When I saw the return address and postmark, I just couldn’t believe it.  Stephen King sent ME something??!! 

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Things I Like Thursday – Write Before Christmas

I wanted to see this movie on the recommendation of Racquel Henry, the owner of Writer’s Atelier, a group I belong to.  But I couldn’t find it streaming anywhere, so I ended up buying it.  Good decision!

As you’d expect of a Hallmark Christmas romance, it’s light and fun and full of romantic miscues but also has its share of orphans, loneliness and an adorable dog looking for his furrever home.  Here’s the story-Jessica, newly single again, takes Christmas cards intended for the guy who just broke up with her and sends them to five people with notes telling them how they have influenced her life for the better:

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