The Rest of the Story - Part 3

My mother was born quite a few years before any of her cousins. Since she had her children at such a young age, we ended up being peers of her later-born cousins. I can remember having a great time with 3 of them especially at her family reunions. The guys were enough older that we didn't know them so well.

One of the "boys" was the brother of one of the girl cousins that kept V and me in stitches. We would always spend at least one night at her house, just giggling uncontrollably. That's probably why we didn't know her brother so well, because he had to get out of the house to keep his sanity!

This cousin, Darrell, invited all 4 of us to stay at his house while we were in Monti. They live out in the country in a beautiful 101-year-old house that they have spent years restoring and improving. It was a very peaceful, lovely spot to land for several nights while we went on with our trip down memory lane.

I took advantage of the country road to walk two mornings. I haven't done much walking since I joined the gym, but it was cool enough and just a wonderful place to do my formerly favorite form of exercise. This was the view the first morning as I headed down the gravel driveway to the gravel road.

Darrell has a great sense of humor, as various signs along the driveway will attest. I expecially enjoyed this one: Through Street: STOP

I also was amused by these intersecting signs out in the middle of nowhere!

When I returned from my first morning's walk, I discovered dozens of barn swallows having a morning snack of mosquitoes on the eaves of the barn - I never knew before why they were called barn swallows.

I have not been a collector in my adulthood, except for dust, and that is always the first thing that comes to my mind when I see huge collections in people's houses - how do you stand to dust all these things? Both Darrell and Liz are unbelievable collectors, mostly of antiques. Liz told me it takes 12 hours to dust everything. Darrell's barn is full of toys, which we didn't get a chance to see. He also has farm implements and farm tools.

This phone actually rings, but, of course, you can't call out. I had the urge to pick it up, ring Sarah, and ask for Barney or Aunt Bee.

This blast from the past really cracked me up. I hope you can read it. I love that they framed it and hung it in their kitchen.

I wanted to pack this up and ship it home for Care Bear and Feisty. I can't imagine how much fun they could have with it! Their granddaughters, whose pictures are on the wall inside, have long ago outgrown it, but it is kept in pristine condition. Sorry about the fuzziness of the second picture.

On Saturday, we went to Mom's family reunion. There are only two aunts left, one 85 and the other 93. They were both there, and I haven't seen them in probably 40 years or more. I had a delightful conversation with both of them. They were much younger than I am now when I last saw them. That's quite a thought!

I didn't get a picture for some reason, but we had a very relaxing ride on Darrell's pontoon boat - the reunion was at their lake cottage. Another great day.

That evening V and I rushed over to visit more friends down the road about 30 miles. On the way back that evening, I shot a picture of the place Dad worked when he was going to college and keeping up a family of 3 kids and a wife! It hasn't changed much in all those years - amazing.

Sunday morning we attended church where my dad's family were charter members. It's not my grandma's church any more! But it was delightful to be there and catch up with one more couple - the only one still there that we knew (he's the brother of the ones we visited the night before). We've been friends since we were kids. They went to lunch with us and we did some more catching up.

That afternoon, V and I had to go to the park on the river, which is next to the house my Grandma S lived in after she had to leave the farm (which now houses a Super Wal-Mart and other stores), and before she had to go to the nursing home. The park has been upgraded, and we took pictures of the flowers that now live where she used to. She would have loved it.

Can you see the butterfly on this next one?

Here's a better shot of it, if you missed it.

My other grandparents also lived in this town. The Interstate went through their property and all that is recognizable now is the ancient cemetery, which was at the bottom of the hills that was their driveway, and where we used to like to go and try to imagine what happened to entire families that are buried there. I wanted to take a walk over there, but we ran out of time. I can't imagine how that happened!!!

I was sad at how much the old town has changed. It was like Mayberry to us. I know progress has to happen, but it is hard to take when it happens in such massive amounts to a place with such fond memories. I can only imagine what people think when they come here to my town and see what "progress" has done to it.

It was an amazing 4 days. I am so blessed to have been able to do this before it's too late.

Old Memories and Making New Ones - Part 2

A week ago already! How could the time have gone so fast? V and I got up early (in fact an hour earlier than necessary, because I read my watch wrong!), hurried to get ready because of a 7:00 a.m. date with a Minneapolis city bus. (She laid back down, I read my book). We had decided taking the bus was the easiest way to get downtown for our rendezvous with our friend from high school, Maryam. I wrote about Maryam twice in October, here and here. The only time we could arrange to meet was for breakfast before she had to be at work at 9:00.

We spent the time catching up on 45 years. I cannot believe it's been so long. We didn't know each other well, but we enjoyed the friendship that we had. When we parted company that morning, I asked her what her husband thought of all this - he is Iranian and they had trouble getting back to America after they were married. He was pretty amazed by the whole reunion, I think. She said she was going home to tell him that we closed the gap of 45 years in about 45 minutes. Pretty close to true!

I just noticed that V is the only one with her eyes open! It was early, but it's ridiculous that we appear to be falling asleep at the breakfast table!

V headed back to Ann's apartment to meet up with our parents and take them to Monticello, where they met and fell in love when they were only 14 and 17, to be married 3 years later. I had told Diane that I would be wearing red crop pants. It's a good thing I did, because I was watching for her on one street and she arrived on a perpendicular street. But I did stand out in the crowd! You can read her version of our time together here.

As we headed out of the city, Diane told me to grab the bag on the back seat. Oh, my goodness, she blessed me with such a lovely assortment of gifts, beautifully placed in a basket shaped like Minnesota! Everything in the basket had a Minnesota connection.

Front and center you can see a bear at a computer - more about that later. Just behind the bear and to the left is a beautiful moose bookmark - what more appropriate gift could there be for me, who always needs to mark a place in a book?? To the right of the bookmark is a Minnesota-shaped chocolate sucker and beside it is a fish-shaped chocolate sucker. These were for the grandkiddoes - what a thoughtful friend. The red package is wild rice soup mix -I can't wait to taste it, but will wait till it's a bit cooler. Behind the soup are two packages of wonderful-looking truffles with Minnesota scenes on each of the four sides of the package - these are for my kids and their spouses. There was one more goodie, which I had already eaten when I took the picture - pretzel sticks covered with white chocolate, to look like birch tree logs. At the very back is a CD called "Minnesota Morning and Timeless Favorites" - piano music, which is one of my favorite types of music to listen to at work. I played it over and over yesterday as I remembered the good time we had together for those short hours.

Isn't this just the cutest thing? It's called "E-Bear." I have it on my file cabinet at work in a very prominent spot. I had it on the table to take this picture. I must have been really distracted the next morning, because in the middle of the day I got an e-mail from DC asking me if I had meant for him to have it at his desk. I had left it on the table, and it's right where he eats breakfast - he thought I was going to let him have it - HA! I asked him to please, please remember to bring it back to me!

As Diane said, we had to make a stop at the Mall of America. I wasn't sure I was going to make it to this major landmark in Minneapolis, but thanks to Diane, I got to see it. I'm not a shopper in any sense of the word - give me a catalog and my easy chair any day. I would rather return stuff than try things on in a store dressing room! Even though it costs more that way. But you can't go to Minneapolis and not see the MOA - it's like going to Arizona and skipping the Grand Canyon!

I know we didn't even scratch the surface, but we had fun walking around, chatting several miles a minute as we did. We talked of how much fun it would be to bring the kiddoes there and spend a whole day. It's an amusement park as large as any you've probably seen. Amazing. The Lego display is unbelievable. We asked several people to take our pictures and they were all so willing to do so.

We then headed for Diane's home town and had lunch at a lovely place on one of the thousands of beautiful lakes that Minnesota is famous for. What a great time we had eating delicious salads and making new memories. As she said, we talked about you, our friends, and wished you were there with us.

Diane is a very generous person, as you can tell by the gift she gave me. She also took me to Monticello. I can tell you that there were very few silent moments in the 6 hours that we were together. As she mentioned, her 2:00 appointment was cancelled as we headed to Monti, so we had a bit more time than we anticipated. What a blessing. She told you about meeting my dad - the ultimate story teller. I am so glad that she enjoyed his memories so much.

When I began this blogging adventure a little over a year ago, I never dreamed that I would have the privilege, or even have the great desire, to meet someday. As Groovylady said in a comment to Diane, if we never meet on this earth, we will have a great Bloggy Get-together in heaven someday. Shall we set a date 100 years from now??

Diane's son is embarking on the journey to wholeness. It is because of our prodigal sons that we became acquainted. She hosted the big "Welcome Home, Kevin" party when he returned from Tēēn Challenge last June, before I even had a blog (Kristen soon took care of that!). So many prayers have gone up for so many of us and our life crises in the last year. What amazing answers to prayer we have seen. Now we get to watch God work in Diane's son's life.

I have a few more pictures and stories, so I'll quit for now and say "Part 3 - To Be Continued."

Make New Friends, but Keep the Old . . .

Remember that song? One is silver and the other gold. It's been a week already since I left for my whirlwind trip to my roots in Minnesota. What a wonderful trip it was. We crammed more "remembering" into 4 days than you can imagine.

The first adventure began on the airplane. I always try to get an aisle seat, because I have a problem with claustrophobia (not to mention the need to be able to get to that tiny little room in the back of the plane without requiring the other people in the row to put away their laptops, books, sodas, etc). I was the first one in my row, then the middle occupant arrived. Shortly, the young woman with the window seat made her entrance - and promptly asked if I would mind trading seats with her. I did mind. I specifically asked for an aisle seat. But when I looked at her white face, and saw her heading for the back in a hurry, I decided I would rather be cramped and uncomfortable than covered with you-know-what. She began to chatter uncontrollably and said, "I feel better when I'm talking, but I promise I'll quit when we get in the air." As it turned out, the 3 of us talked the entire hour and 26 minutes. She really had a panic problem and thanked us for the conversation, saying she could not have been in a better row if she'd picked it out herself. It was fun.

My sis (I'll call her V) and I stayed with my cousin Ann (remember this?), who has spent 25 years in Mali, Africa, living in huts in the desert, with R&R trips in to the capital city of Bamako. They have seen 79 conversions in all of this time, but they are Muslims who have found Christ and are living for Him, often secretly. Their lives could be in danger if their families knew of their new faith. They pray with the family at the appointed times, but they pray to God instead of Allah. It is an amazing story they live.

V, Ann, and I suddenly realized it was 12:45 and we'd better get some sleep if we were going to have any fun the next day (her husband, Larry, was up at their cabin in the northern part of the state).

My next adventure was a lunch date with my grade school friend when we lived in International Falls. Both Mary and I realized as we talked that we were pretty "nerdy" and really needed each other. She was friendless for a semester after her long-time best friend moved away. She was waiting for me to arrive, and I really was in need of a friend in this new, intimidating school. We loved reading, and we both remembered being the last one picked for any given sports team at recess - I know we couldn't both have been last, but that's the way we felt about our athletic abilities! She grew up to be a librarian, and I, well you know, I have a book in my hand at all times, in case I might find a spare minute to fill.

That is my sister on the left. The necklace she is wearing was a gift from Ann with a brass African carving and a beaded necklace holding it.

It's amazing how much you can find to talk about with a childhood friend whom you have not seen for 47 years! She was so kind to go up to her home town and take pictures of things she knew we'd like to see - our church, our elementary and junior high schools, the library, the gigantic Paul Bunyan, downtown streets. She brought me a package of Canadian caramels and a nice can of Canadian strawberry jam. Unfortunately, I decided to leave the jam in my carry-on bag instead of trying to cram it into my already very heavy suitcase. Mistake - they confiscated it at the security gate - more than 3.4 ounces of "liquid." I'm not aware of any way that someone could have put something dangerous in an unopened can, which would require a can opener to use - but I was very sad at the loss of this thoughtful gift.

That evening, we had the get-together of those from my dad's family who live in the Twin Cities area and were able to get together.

My dad on the left (age 81) and his oldest brother, Ann's dad (age 86). Uncle Al was a missionary in Africa for 45 years. He told in detail the story of their first trip over in the 1940s, which I had never heard before. He has become very forgetful about present-day things, though, and introduced my dad to their sister and his children.

Ann and one of her grandchildren.

Ann's husband, Larry.

Ann's brother, my cousin Rich, his wife, Sini, and their son, Alain. They met in boarding school.

Dad's only sister and her granddaughter.

The following shots are all of Ann's artistry - she makes wonderful jewelry, weavings, displays of ancient beads and rocks, and the first one is a collection of bracelets made by some of the Africans they have worked with.

Stay tuned for Part 2 - more reunions and a new friendship.