The Long Goodbye

Watching someone you love battle Parkinson's Disease

and old age in general is a heartbreaking thing.

Two weeks ago our Sweet Mum passed away.

Now we suffer through the pain and sadness from losing

her from our lives but at the same time we are happy she

 is no longer in pain.  Luckily, our kids got to come home

from college so they were able to say their last goodbye

to their beloved Grammie.  In the end, my sister and I 

cared for her like she was the child, we would tell her she

was our brave little girl and cheer for every spoonful of

food that she could eat.  We are happy that we could

make her final wish come true, she ended her days in 

her own little house, in her own little bed and she was

cared for by those that loved her.

So now it is time to try to focus on the happy memories.

In her final days we had a lot of time to reflect on the 

wonderful life she had lived.  Not always an easy life

but a life filled with love and happiness in whatever 

circumstance you were given.

The photo above was taken in 1924.  My Mum is in 

the baby stroller, at this point she was the youngest

with one more child to come. She would always talk

about her childhood in a happy way.  I think the younger

years, through the 20's, things were quite happy.

This photo was in 1936.  After the crash in 1929, the

world changed for so many people in our country and

for many of my Mum's friends.  Luckily, my grandparents

owned their home and my Pop Pop was an engineer for the

Pennsylvania Railroad, he had a job throughout the Great

Depression.  I can remember stories my Mum told of her 

friends at the time, many of their families were not so lucky,

many no longer had homes and had to move from apartment 

to apartment or their Dads left in search of work and other

Dads got sick and had to go live in sanitoriums to battle

TB in the days before antibiotics and vaccines.  Mum said

Nana would always have bread and butter or a sandwich

to give to the men that came knocking on the door looking

for food.  Times were tough but they made the best of it,

since the family could ride the train for free, Nana would

take the kids down to Asbury Park or Point Pleasant and 

they would spend the day at the beach and eat a picnic

meal that they brought from home to save money.

Mum went to St Mary's for grammar school and

then on to public school for high school.  She stayed

friends with many of her school friends for her entire

life.

My Mum and Dad lived across the street from each other

but since my Dad's family had just recently moved there

they didn't know each other.  My Dad and my Uncle Bob

were on the same baseball team down the shore and got

to talking and realized they were from the same town and

then realized they lived just across the street from each 

other.  That is how they met, this photo shows them standing

on that street in front of the house where my Mum was born.

She graduated from high school in 1941 and by the

end of that year the US entered WWII and so many 

of the guys in her class went off to fight, as did my Dad.

Mum and her friends worked after high school and she

was a USO girl during the war.  

I think since this high school class lost so many of

their classmates in the war, those that remained took 

their class reunions very seriously.  Mum always was part

 of the planning committee up until she moved out of 

state.  She kept going to the reunions up until her 60th

which was just a few weeks after 9/11 had happened.

She flew into Newark airport and it was so confusing 

to get around due to all the new security that she said

that she wouldn't do that again.

After the war, Mum and Dad got married in a double

wedding ceremony with one of her sisters.  They had

my brother and sister early on and many years later

I came along.  We lived a happy life in our small town,

our aunts, uncles and cousins lived nearby and we had

a very close family relationship with everyone.  As we

grew older, Mum and Dad traveled more, they took

many trips including Hawaii, and Europe.  In those

days it was a big deal to travel to Europe, my Dad 

always wanted to take my Mum to Italy since he had

been stationed there in the war, so off they went.

After I got married, I moved to the Midwest.  In a

few years I had the Irish twins and my parents were

crazy in love with them.  My Dad wanted to move 

out to live near them but sadly he was ill and that

never got to happen.  Dad died 20 years ago and 

after a while Mum decided she didn't want only a 

few phone calls a week and only getting to see the

kids a few times a year, so she decided to move out 

here.  We had the luck of the Irish and the house 

behind us came up for sale and she bought it.

This picture was taken the first night Grammie was

starting her new life as a Midwesterner at Kate's dance

recital.  Our dreams had come true.

And it only got better from there.  We were able to spend

every holiday together, Mum could go to everything that 

the kids participated in, Saturday nights were always 

sleepover night at Grammie's until they left for college.

Sunday night dinners were at Gram's, Wednesday night

dinners were at our house, the kids were able to run over

and kiss Gram goodbye everyday before getting on the

school bus.  It was heaven...

So that is what we are trying to focus on now, holding

on to the good memories.  But we still miss her terribly...

So we beat on, boats against the current, 

borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

The Magic Carpet

This week marked the 20 year anniversary of

the day we bought our house.  This was meant

to be our starter home, we thought we'd be here

for a few years.  After my Father passed away, 

my Mum decided she wanted more than a few

phone calls a week with her only grandchildren

and she decided to move to Indiana to be near 

us.  She flew out on a few house hunting trips

but we couldn't find a place that was just right.

One day a neighbor came over to tell me the

neighbor whose property ran along my back

yard had passed away, I said I didn't want to

sound crass but what did they plan to do with 

the house?  She said they wanted to sell it right

away.  I call my Mum and told her to get on a

plane.  It was perfect and that was how our

life like the Waltons began.  My kids were able 

to see their Grammie every day, it was such a

good move.

So back to the heart of this story, after we bought

our house my Mother-in-Law told me she had 

something for me.  On one of their visits from

Michigan, my inlaws had a beautiful, huge Persian

carpet in the back of the Cadillac.  My Mother-in-Law 

said it had been her Mother's when she had her first 

house and she wanted me to have it since I had such

a lovely relationship with her Mom ~ we were both

Ellens.  I cherish it and it has been in our family room

ever since.

After my Mother-in-Law passed away we inherited

the runner pictured above.  It needed a cleaning but

I didn't want to send it out because I was afraid they

might use chemicals and I try to keep harsh chemicals

out of our life.  I remember seeing a show on PBS many

years ago about wool carpets and they said you could

wash them yourself.  I checked on youtube and found

many tutorials and finally I found the courage to try 

this on my own.  I was so afraid I might ruin it.

First I vacuumed it well on both sides. I then

saturated it with the hose, don't just get it wet, 

you want to fill it with water.  I worked on my deck 

but a concrete driveway would work as well.

I then turned it over and walked all over it like 

you were crushing grapes.  You want to get any

dirty or debris to move from between the fibers.

Then I turned it over again and added soapy

water (I used a product made for wool) in a

circular motion with a soft brush.  Once again,

walk on it like you are stomping grapes.  I did 

this on the top and bottom of the rug.

Then it was time to rinse and squeegee.  Use a

floor squeegee, not the type for windows. I

rinsed and squeegeed many times until it looked

like the rinse water was clear.

I then moved it to a dry area of the deck and

let it drain for a few hours.  Then I put it upside

down on the lawn.  This was to prevent static

that could harm the lanolin in the fibers.

Of course, Murphy's Law would have it that it

started to rain later in the day, so I brought it

into the gazebo and let it dry draped over a few

chairs.  Leave it until completely dry.

It is now in another section of our family room

and Mia the Wonder dog thinks it is just for her.

We call it her Magic Carpet.

Ice, Ice Baby

We have a problem with our ice maker.  It's not

a mechanical problem, it is a problem with its

mere existence...  according to Mia the Wonder

dog that is.  She hates the ice maker.  For years,

we bought bags of ice so we could disengage the 

ice maker so it wouldn't bother Mia.

That is until this summer and my discovery of

iced coffee.  You see, up until this summer I 

had never had coffee, the smell just didn't 

appeal to me ~ at all.  

In May Wonderful and I were at International

Quilt Market in Pittsburgh.  We had worked all 

day in our booth, taken the booth apart and 

packed the car and were heading West for a 

six hour drive home.  Wonderful said he needed

some coffee so he pulled into a fast food place and

decided to get an iced coffee since we were so hot

from packing the car.  He had them put some 

flavoring in the coffee and it smelled delicious!

I took a sip and I was hooked.

So a few times this summer I drove through the 

fast food place and got the iced coffee and loved

it.  But, my family had to be honest with me, I

had a problem.  Did I mention that I have been

caffeine free for over a decade (except for any

caffeine that is found in chocolate)?  Yeah, it seems

caffeine just is not good for me.  I start talking a

mile a minute, I start coming up with all these

fabulous plans and my family just looks at me

like, "who is she"?

So now I make my own decaf coffee and pour 

it over ice and add a flavored creamer and it's

really good.  

Except for the ice...

We have started using the ice maker again 

because we are going through a lot of ice.

And that is no bueno for my puppy dog. 

I try to get her outside when I'm getting 

ice out of the bin so she can't hear it.  Or 

I'll very quietly put in piece by piece into 

the glass but she knows...  can she smell 

it?  But the worst part is when the ice 

maker decides it needs to add more ice 

to the bin.  When the ice falls in, Mia 

freezes and then looks at us and

then skulks away, looking something 

like this.  She heads upstairs and hides behind 

the bed.  We call the noise "Ghostie" because 

that is what we imagine she must think, that

there is a little ghost inside the freezer, throwing

ice cubes around.  

Poor Puppy.

And don't even ask about windy days that may

make the curtains move or thunderstorms.