Fragments

Since my mother has moved in with me I have gone into nostalgia.  Yesterday my brother brought more of her photo albums to the house and so we spent some time going over the pictures.  Looking at me when I was slim, the kids with braces, Mom with her horses, it just reminded us of how fast time flies by.

      It also showed me how fragile life is.  One minute a person is amongst the living and then they are gone forever.  Looking at pictures of Dad, of Kimberly, of Grandpa made me sad. But then I think of the miracle of pictures and videos.  Imagine all the generations that didn’t have photography, and even our generation where there are no baby videos (or films) of us (unless you were rich, who could afford those Hollywood style films?).  And of course, we have our memories to keep the dear departed with us.

      Watching my mother putz around the kitchen is like seeing her when I was a kid.  She was either in the kitchen cooking up a storm, washing dishes or washing the floor (on hands and knees).  Back in Winnipeg we had hardwood floors and once a month we were in The Danger Zone coming home from school after she’d been on the waxing bender.  We’d come running in the house only to go flying into one wall or the other because she really worked in the elbow grease when she polished the floors.  And I am NOT joking, we really did fly into the walls.  I think we might have broken a Guiness record with how many times we hit the wall.  The wonder is that we never broke an arm or a leg.

      In the afternoon we hung up some pictures and then dusted off some other ones but never managed to get them on the wall.  I ran out of scotch tape to affix the pictures straight in their mats so they will have to languish for another week.  But it’s nice to see things shaping up in my mother’s room and seeing her be more comfortable as she goes around the house.  She tells me she is waiting to get back into the swing of sewing again and can hardly wait to enjoy the sunroom.  So we worked on clearing things out a bit more for her there.  Yesterday we sat on the deck and soaked up some rays and that reminded me of when my mother was a real sunworshiper, lying out on the old fashioned lawn chairs in her bikini.  Yesterday when we went outside she said she wasn’t going to put makeup on because she wanted ‘vitamin D’ on her face.  Isn’t she cute?  Politically correct, too.