Remembering precious people

I don't sit around pining away for family members who've graduated to heaven. I'm not depressed or morose about them being gone, but some days I do miss them so much. On any given day there may be the occasional reminder of a Gran or a Frank or a Big Frank or a Bessie "ism." Those are things that remind me of each of them and make me smile, or brings a tear. Tonight as Olivia and I were driving down the street, we saw lightening off in the distance and as we did, I said, "Must be heat lightening," which of course made me think of Frank, because the discussion about heat lightening made him CRAZY as he always argued there was no such thing. Many of us believed in heat lightening, or liked to make him believe we did. Many of us argued that clearly it was hot....clearly there was lightening, therefore.....he would hear none of it. But we loved to make him crazy when we broached the subject in his presence. I would love for my adult kids to have known him. What a great guy he was....fun and funny.

Another Frank story came about on our family's 1981 trip to Florida. Back in that day there were 2 TV channels to watch at the beach...or at home for that matter. Anyway, some of us at the beach were up late searching through the two channels for something to watch. One was Motel Hell and the other, I have no idea because Motel Hell was forever burned into my memory. Well, Frank INSISTED we watch Motel Hell. The premise of the endearing flick involved a motel, of course, and people being hijacked from the motel who were then planted into the ground, eventually becoming the motel's "world famous ham." And I'm not even kidding. We suffered through that crap as he told us over and over, "This is a great movie." Of course he was lying and of course he thought it was crap too, although in his entire life he would never admit it. In the years to come anytime we ever saw Motel Hell on TV we'd call him to tell him it was on, and every single time we'd hear the same thing, "That's a great movie." Liar. That awful movie is now a cult hit for weird people. Who'd a thunk we saw it back in the day before it was "somebody" while being complete crap. And so, tonight when the thought of heat lightening...and that terrible movie.....brought my brother to mind, it made me smile and miss him.

Then later, as I was trying to dream up something to blog about, I came across the following pictures. Most of these are of my three girls helping Gran in his garden and helping Grandma shell peas. As long as I can remember Gran planted, tended and harvested a garden, and Grandma canned and cooked everything he grew. They both worked many hours in their respective places, she in her little Texas kitchen and he in the hot Texas sun caring for what we could scarf down in 30 minutes time. His garden was one of his great loves and he cared for it no matter the weather. And Bessie could cook a meal like no other. We had fun helping both of them when we came for a visit. I'm certain our "help" extended Gran's working time, but he never fussed about it....too much anyway.

So, here's a reminder to me of wonderful memories from days gone by. Hurts my heart a little tonight but as I write this, I'll bet my loved ones are having a grand old time in heaven.

Wish I could take a peek.

Caitlin surveying and Gran picking.


Olivia's joined the two in little girl gardening attire, the latest fashion in bathing suits.


Emma showed up for a sec, but this city girl has already had enough.


My four kiddies having a snuggle on the back porch.


And now it's time for pea shelling with Bessie. No telling how many thousands of peas my grandmother shelled in her lifetime. The other night at Melanie's we watched a video of her telling she once handpicked 250 pounds of cotton in one day. A MAY ZING.


Don't know why Bessie's the only one without her bikini on.


I'd love to have a portion of her yummy peas right now.


I'm sure Bessie's checking for every single pea out of every single pod.....the little girls.....not so much.


Cutie pie Olivia.


It'd sure be nice if they were all still here.

Sigh....