Remembering Gram

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  This morning, I received a check via UPS.  It was expected. It was from  my (former)  mother-in-law, who died a couple of months ago at the age of 103.

Last month, while we were on our cruise, Carole, my (former) sister-in-law sent me an e-mail. I was one of several who were remembered in gram's will.  Carole requested my social security number so  I called her with it when I got back to Florida.  She  told me  that I shouldn't expect much - she said it was just a remembrance - and I suppose it was, but still. . . it was more than I expected. (Actually - I didn't expect anything).

  She and Pop lived on a 117-acre "Gentleman's Farm." Pop was a printer by trade, but he raised black angus cows at Elksem Farm.  Their big farmhouse was old and beautiful, and they took great pride in it, and enjoyed entertaining there with all their friends and family.  She was a gourmet cook. The house had plenty of bedrooms, it even had an apartment for guests - or family.  There were places for kids to play - both inside and out.  Their kitchen had a big picture window overlooking the "back 40" with a big kitchen table in front.  We had many cups of coffee there - looking out - discussing the world!

 Fall, up there, could be breathtaking, and we always tried to make it a point to  be there then.  Bill would remember this, but I think they sold it before Nancy was old enough (age 4) to remember much.  Carole's children were older, they lived closer, and  so they'd naturally have more memories of it.  But not dearer.

 One of the first memories I have of Gram was in the late '60's of her reading a then unknown book called The Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. I'm sure you all know of it now. . . It became the ecologists' bible. She would quote from it even before ecology was popular. . .Living at the farm, she certainly could have related to the book

We certainly enjoyed their strawberries in the summer.  Their strawberry patch was something else.  There's a picture in an album, somewhere, of Pop with a HUGE strawberry in a manhattan (instead of a cherry).   It practically took up the whole glass.  What a grin he had!

Or the "balloon pumpkins" Pop hid in his garden for the grandchildren to discover.  Or the candy bird egg he hid in a nest and showed the grandkids the nest and then he ate the egg!

Gram loved to sew and made several lovely outfits for Nancy, Bill - a bathrobe that I still have stored away,(and me - a dress for a cruise, a vest that I wore many years to school.)

I could go on and on, but I won't - just wanted you all to know a little bit about Gram and know I miss her to this day.  Even though I didn't see her often in later years.

Where has the morning gone? I just glanced down and it's almost noontime. Wow.  

So - what's happenin' in your neck o' the wood?