Papaw’s Grave Resides in Concrete Across from Eternal Lane
When I was a child, my mom and Mamaw would takes us to Papaw’s grave. They’d pack a picnic lunch and always had a thermos of coffee and one with Koolaid. The cemetery was maintained by the loved ones. Mom and Mamaw made sure to represent.
They brought the push reel mower for cutting grass around the headstone. We all had a hand in pulling weeds. Fresh flowers and sometimes an ornament or two. After the “yard work” was done, we’d eat.
These are not morbid memories. My brothers and I would run around and play freeze tag or “it”. We had fun. Death was not scary. We talked about Papaw often not just on visiting days. He was in a better place than us.
Then around the age of nine, I had a realization that losing someone was hard. A few days before our caretaking trip, a baby grave was added. The mound of dirt still fresh. As we chased each other, I stopped when I noticed the new polished headstone with the following verse:
King James Version 1 Corinthians 2:9
But as it is written, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
Those parents picked that verse because they needed help making sense of their loss. What struck me most was no blame. We don’t comprehend but we know we’re still in His tender care. Taught young Jilly a life long lesson which I used today.
The following email arrived at 10:10 CST
Team – Really sad news to share that H passed away. There are more details that have been shared, but I felt the only thing that matters is that those of us that had worked with H took a moment to think about him and his family. Take care.
Can’t say I remember the rest of the day. His poor momma. No words, only sadness. My kids rallied around me. They both told me to knock off work. But for me, work was a much needed distraction to avoid thinking about …
His smile. His laugh. His friendly manner. How I looked forward to meetings where he’d be there because he made work fun. How did I not know? How did we miss the signs? Were there any?
Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, …
I look at the calendared meeting that will never come. His last email marked unread. May the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. ❤
This book was in my treasure trove trunk. It contains professionally shot, color photos of wildlife in Yellowstone National Park. We took one of the best family vacations ever when we went there in June of 1972. We pulled a travel trailer behind the station wagon. Yeah buddy! We stayed in various KOA parks between Texas to Wyoming. KOA stands for Kampgrounds of America. Drives all English majors krazy. Kool right 🙂
I remember seeing snow on the ground in Colorado. We were shocked! We pulled off the side of the road for pictures. We had left Texas in shorts. Thank goodness mom had reminded us to pack our jackets. Boy was it cold.
We stayed in Colorado to see Pikes Peak and the Royal Gorge. We actually took the wagon sans trailer up the narrow one lane road to an observation area before turning around and going back down. I hid my eyes the whole way up. At the Royal Gorge we had a vote between cog train or the tram. The older siblings voted tram which was actually less scary than the drive up Pikes Peak. Of course, not realizing that I cried. Pitched a fit (or so I was told) and almost did not get in. Seeing Old Faithful in Yellowstone was also a treat. But mostly I remember a stinky egg smell of sulfur. The stay in your trailer/tent bear warnings blasted through speaker in the campground were a bit unnerving too.
I only have flashes of images. I was only 7 1/2 years old at the time. Even the memories I do have are likely from what I was told or what we talked about for years after the trip. We were always allowed to get a souvenir and I picked this picture book. I was a weird little kid.
Now that I am doing my Swedish Death cleaning, this book is going to Half Price books. I don’t have the heart to toss it into the trash or recycle. But I know the family won’t want it. Since I have decided to downsize versus organize, I feel mucho mas bueno.
Here are the questions on tap for today. Thanks Melanie! If folks would like to join in, here are the rules and ping back.
Questions:
Are you a clean or messy person? I’m mostly clean with messy tendencies which means I am never satisfied with how clean things are. I’ve talked a lot lately about sprucing up the place now that I work from home. Since I am here all day every day, I notice stuff. When I was leaving the house for work, not so much. I could overlook some glaring opportunities. That said I am going minimalist and conducting a Swedish Death clean. I hear doing so is life changing 🙂
If I asked you to describe yourself in five words – what would they be?
Here’s two from my profile
quirky and sentimental
+ two
Loves, Reads, Listens
Look at me describing myself as verbs 🙂
Do you enjoy being out in nature? Sort of, kind of, not really. I do when the weather is right. Ask me in the fall and I might switch my answer to a resounding YES!!!
What could you spend all day talking about? As a geeky insurance nerd – work :).
Attitude of Gratitude:(OPTIONAL)
I am grateful for the kindness of strangers. Someone left a bag of no slip socks on my in-laws from porch. Mary is not home yet but she is doing better. Being in the hospital without loved ones around is rough. Notice I did not say alone. The nurses are angels on earth. They spend as much time as they can with her. ❤
Another week closed. Whew! Work is kicking my butt in a good way. Busy, busy, busy keeps lil Jilly out of trouble. Without further ado, here’s my blog log. <trying to come up with something catchy> Note to self, play around with the opening a bit more 🙂
Sunday’s #SLS was awesome as usual. The hits keep rolling in. I used a blaring rock scream by Budgie. Breadfan!
Monday we have Haiku and #SYW both favorites of mine. One – Haiku scratches my creative itch and two – #SYW is free therapy. One of the bloggers I follow who is an author said (my paraphrase) “we just want to be read”. Might be why I have an affinity to sharing my world. I want to be read … to connect … to ??? Monday was also the day my mother in law fell. I did’t write about it until Friday which you can see here. Being out of order might mess with my controlling tendencies.
Tuesday is where I re-introduced “Story Time” making this category more formalized. Without rules though. I just wanna write and be read. Uh ya I do.
Wednesday we go corny … always. Thanks to Linda for hosting #1linerWeds. Another highlight of the week.
Thursday more “Story Time” and more explanation of what may follow. Though I reserve the right to change the rules at any time. Hehe. Wait! I said no rules right? Yeppers.
Friday, please see the link up top and out of order with the Monday fare. I may be writing more about Mary in the coming weeks. Or Jimmy, our PoPo. The guy who built the internet.
Closing out the week is #SoCS. check/cheque/Czech were our promps. ❤ Saweeetttt! Memories of my dad and Pony for the gold. Oh and finally a mini rant on Chrome. I may have found a work around. Hopefully so. Or another rant may follow.
For my ending, I am sticking with those two last lines. I will work on my intro some more though. What else am I gonna do? Running out of things to clean. I’ve got nuthing or everything cuz it’s all relative ya know? Yeah Buddy.
Jim gives us different/same as prompts . I could not come up with anything so I used the bloggers best friend and searched finding this gem almost immediately. Brand new to me. I have never heard of Micah Tyler before. I almost moved along since the length is over five minutes and my attention span ain’t what it used to be. Glad I stopped and took a moment because this song right here is an anthem. His story compelling. Lessons all around us that’s for sure.
Writer(s): Kyle Lee, Micah Tyler Begnaud
I don’t wanna hear anymore, teach me to listen
I don’t wanna see anymore, give me a vision
That you could move this heart, to be set apart
I don’t need to recognize, the man in the mirror
And I don’t wanna trade Your plan, for something familiar
I can’t waste a day, I can’t stay the same
I wanna be different
I wanna be changed
‘Til all of me is gone
And all that remains
Is a fire so bright
The whole world can see
That there’s something different
So come and be different
In me!
And I don’t wanna spend my life, stuck in a pattern
And I don’t wanna gain this world but lose what matters
And so I’m giving up, everything because…
I wanna be different
I wanna be changed
‘Til all of me is gone
And all that remains
Is a fire so bright
The whole world can see
That there’s something different
So come and be different, ooh
I know that I am far from perfect
But through You the cross still says I’m worth it
So take this beating in my heart and
Come and finish what You started
When they see me, let them see You
‘Cause I just wanna be different, ye-ey
I wanna be different
I wanna be changed
‘Til all of me is gone
And all that remains
Ooh is a fire so bright
The whole world can see
That there’s something different
So come and be different
I just wanna be different
So could You be different
In me!
Google Chrome is working on my last damn nerve. I never signed up for these effing notifications and the annoying pop-ups are disrupting my ability to do what I want to do! I might move over to Microsoft Edge which was forced on me a few days ago. Is Edge the new IE? I liked IE. Yes I am a Luddite techno-pheeb who is making words up. I wrote pheeb not phobe since I do not fear technology. I’m just feeble. Which is a bad word isn’t it? Ergh!!!!!!!
Here we go now! Time once again for #SoCS. If you’d like to join in the fun festivities 🥳, here are the rules and ping back.
Definitely is the weirdest summer of our lives. But we power on. Up, over, or under!!
On tap for today, Linda writes and I rewrite “Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “check/cheque/Czech.” Use one, use ’em all, use ’em any way you’d like. Have fun!”
Hmmm 🧐. 🤔🤔🤔 No planning but what’s a cheque? Maybe it’s a fancy way to spell check. Yep. That’s it. And checks are so yesterday’s news like … like Blockbuster and cassettes and rotary dial phones. Ever since this Rona nonsense it’s more evident things are never going back to what they were. In some instances that’s okay. Evolution is improvement. But somehow feels like we’re going backwards.
But enough about that. Yay 😀 Czech. My heritage. My dad didn’t learn to speak English until he entered first grade. Then he became bilingual. But Czech was always his first language and he had a pretty heavy accent.
When he moved from Moulton to the big city of San Antonio, he became multilingual. He always told us once you learn a second language picking up another was easy. Supposedly your brain goes on autopilot “remembering” how to convert. Of course I’d never know. I barely passed Spanish. I learned a few curse words in Czech. And a smattering of other things like jak se mas? Nowhere near the fluency of my cousins who stayed in Moulton.
My favorite memory is Pony siting right next to my dad in the BarcaLounger. Dad would be telling him the “this little piggy went to market” nursery rhyme in Czech. Wi-chee-ka, Wi-chee-Ka, Wi-chee-ka … all the way home. And then the giggles would fill the air.
Alright, that’s all she wrote. At least for now. Getting into another closet today. Fun time for sure. 😂
J-Dub's Grin and Bear It 