Just a Few Lines to Say

Just a few lines to say that I read further in Mum's letters tonight and am trying to decide how to share them. 

 Since Dad died in late January of 2003, the months that I have to share are his last days, and they were difficult ones, even though Mum continued to write about the everyday things and mentioned only hints at the background against which they unfolded.

 I noticed that she suddenly began to simply start her writing with the day of the week as a heading and no date. I dated them with the help of an online calendar, but it is indicative of the stress that she was under without writing about it.

 How I wish I could go back to those months and be with her in them, but I can't, and couldn't then, but in her late seventies, and in frail health herself, she carried a heavy load.

I will continue if I can think of how to do this well, in a way that honours them both. Maybe I will share snippets of the journey--we'll see!

 Thank you for caring to read here.
Belinda

Comments

Marilyn said…
Even your wrestling with how to handle the letters from a particularly sensitive period tells an interesting story to those following your blog a long time. I like that you've shared your uncertainty.
5:18 AM
Belinda said…
Thank you for that, Marilyn. For me this is a treasure, though a very sad one. I started by wanting people to hear the voice that I had discovered buried in boxes, a voice I love and the voice that taught me my first and last life lessons. I still want to do that, but I don't think that sharing each letter verbatim is the way to do it.
8:47 AM
Susan said…
I'm with Marilyn. Your struggle with "how" and "how much" and "what" to share is all part of the story that I am not just "enjoying being made a part of" but learning from and even picking up a few seemingly obscure pieces that somehow fit into and make more sense of that puzzle that is my own story... It's all good...
9:16 AM
Belinda said…
Thank you Susan. You are personally mentioned in one of Mum's letters in December, you'll be thrilled to know, and I will definitely share those words. :)
11:55 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Voyage

Image
Note from Belinda: I read this prayer yesterday and again today--and then I read it to Susan after cell group, when we were having our "second cup" of decaff coffee together. I knew that she'd love it. She has a framed picture on her office wall of a little blond haired girl in a sail boat on a stormy sea. A fatherly sailor,with a weather beaten face; in a gray sou'wester, holds her close, as he capably mans the tiller. This prayer reminds me of that picture and influenced what I wrote earlier today, when I used the metaphor of ebbing waves to describe a lack of consistency and my desire to crash over the sandbar into the peaceful pool on the other side.  ( Susan sent me a link to the painting, which was done by American impressionist Robert Reid in 1888.  It hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in NYC.) Be bless ed by the beauty of this prayer. OH LORD OF THE OCEANS, My little bark sails on a restless sea, Grant that Jesus may sit at the ...
Read more

Samson Beaver and his Family

Image
I first posted this in 2009, a little show and tell about one of my favourite photographs. Back then it hung on a wall, but now it's in my bathroom where I see it every morning! I'd forgotten the history behind the story, researched when I first posted this and thought that current readers might enjoy it--a story from a time when this land was still being discovered, not so very long ago. This photograph was taken by Mary Schaffer; artist, photographer, writer and naturalist, in 1907. It is of a Stoney Indian named Samson Beaver, with his wife Leah and daughter, Frances Louise. I bought the photo on a postcard, on a trip to British Columbia and it hangs framed, on the wall I face when sitting at my laptop. I love it. Don't you just feel as if you could gather Frances Louise up in your arms and cuddle her? I get a deep sense of peace and happiness when I look at this family, sitting in the grass of a long ago fall. They are dressed in their best, beautiful c...
Read more

Ere Zij God--Glory to God in the Highest! A Dutch Carol

Image
By Belinda This beautiful Dutch carol was shared today by a friend of Dutch ancestry, on Facebook. I had never heard it before but absolutely loved it. It moved me deeply, especially at the end after the crowd leaves the church and then breaks into spontaneous singing again around a brazier, with the sound of chiming church bells in the background. Listen to it with headphones or a good speaker to get the full effect of the harmonies. And happy first Sunday in Advent!
Read more