Profile
Photos
Comments
I've written before that my major upset is having people "drop in" and "stop by" without calling first. I like to have everything ready before someone visits. So yesterday afternoon my double first cousin Leah, (whose husband died six months ago,) phoned and said she was coming up from the Coast to spend the night at my house on a spur of the moment idea. Instinct told me something was up with her.
The house was clean-good. I had beef enchiladas and Spanish rice already cooked--good. I'd like to have laundered the linen on the guest bed first--not good. I needed a bath and shampoo--not good. As quickly as possible, (which is slow for me), I showered and shampoo-ed and was almost dressed when she arrived. We talked late into the night until our throats were hoarse.
Leah's husband died after years of protracted illness and now she feels a gap in her life. She had a run-in with her daughter in law. She's about to start a new job--all very stressful events. I have a feeling she's at loose ends, like a wisp of a kite flying lost with frayed string holding her to Earth.
She has been going out with three other women to juke joints..all of them much older than she. These elderly ladies wear tight jeans and spaghetti strap blouses and dance till 2am! She has been married since she was a teenager, and taken care of her mother, then her husband as both died lingering deaths; never time for herself, and now she's floundering as she tries to "find herself."
I took her out for lunch today at my favorite home cooking restaurant. We shopped at Dirt Cheap. Then Leah wanted to go by the little graveyard where our grandparents, her parents, my Dad, and our other close relatives are buried. A carpet of green grass and wildflowers grew around the granite stones. We share so many memories of them; so much love for them. In the quiet, a mockingbird sang from the azalea bushes; a breeze sighed through the pine trees.
In some way, the visit helped us both--it won't be so long till next time. Susil
