It has been an exhausting week. At church, a long-term member died suddenly. In my family, we had a memorial service for my cousin on Friday; and then on Saturday two graveside committal services, one right after the other, one for my Uncle Dick and one for my cousin Becky (daughter of one of Dick’s sisters), both in the family plot in Nantucket, Massachusetts. I have to say I feel pretty drained. Maybe if I could just catch up on some sleep I’d feel like doing something more than just sitting….
Yet Another Unitarian Universalist, vol.1
Volume one contains entries from 2005-2010.
No reason to do more than just sit for awhile after a week like that… goodness.
hey honey –
and somehow you called me in the midst of this didn’t you? sorry to miss the chance to talk – as I’m now off and about for most of the coming month…I’ll try to call back between trips…
take a day off – look at some birds, and make some pancakes – I’m craving Danpancakes…pity they don’t travel well…
Love and miss ya,
M
Dan, It was a very exhausting day. But I did get to see people I have not seen for 25 years.
You told of your feelings of sadness at the loss of two more family members.
I also felt sad and had some moments of remembrance about Mom.
Then last evening I happened to watch the episode of “As Time Goes By” in which, as part of slowly renewing their relationship, they take a drive out into the country to the town in which they had spent several days 38 years ago. They eventually come to the small country inn at which they had tea way back then. Lionel is his usual crusty self but she is gracious and charms the proprietress into making tea for them even though it is the wrong time.
It brought back a memory of a similar episode on the trip Mom and I took to Scotland in 1982. We were on the Isle of Skye and stopped at a house at which we had been told one could purchase special woolens. The proprietor and his wife spent quite a bit of time with us while Mom decided what to buy. He, by the way, was Mr. McGuffey (?) and said that his father had been the author of the famous book “McGuffey’s Reader”. Mom charmed them both. They obviously were pleased to encounter Americans who were not the stereotypical Americans.
As we were leaving at about 2 or 3 pm, Mom asked them if they could recommend a place where we could have lunch. They reminded us that it was past closing time for lunch; but Mrs. McGuffey said she would call the owner of a hotel about a mile down the road. The arrangements were made for us to have high tea there even though we were not guests of the hotel. When we arrived at the hotel we welcomed and taken into the parlor for high tea. It very obviously was an expensive country hotel; but they were very hospitable. Mom was her usual gracious self and I had sense enough to keep quiet, so we were treated like royalty.
It was a very special experience which the TV show last evening brought back to me, because of the similar way in which they had tea at the wrong time in a country inn.
Mom had that special air about her that people intuitively recognized and respected.