Bits and Pieces: Letters and Memory
For someone born to a man who had wanted a son, life was not easy...
...She rode with everyone while we were in Texas, helping with doctoring the injured and sick livestock during the roundup time and during the summer when school was out. Mother tried to keep her home under all kinds of "mothers'" pretenses so she didn't have to do that hard work and knowing Dad would be on her case for not roping and holding a 1200 pound angry steer...
...Life was not easy despite her having tied for the highest IQ in her schools' history. Rumor had them near 200...
...She was a natural writer and speaker. In high school she tried out for the Lions speech contest and went all the way to State, competing against hundreds of other gifted students and won 2nd. An unequaled feat since by any students from that school. She also tried out for girls basketball and made the cut of course but Dad wouldn't let her play. Thought it was not appropriate or some other crazy idea...
....Always taller and bigger than the other girls when she was growing up. As an adult, memory has her near 6'3". Not only taller but faster and for sure tougher...
...Later, she met him. They are smart, strong and could handle almost any situation, that is except Vee-da. They use to get into it and even he was trained to deal with bad guys I think Vee-da could beat him up and every time they started drinking a fight would follow. All of us loved him. He still contacts us every few years. Great guy! He was an Ann Rand type!...
...That was the last of our conversations as she was to return to her place, get her personal stuff and make the break. However, she had stopped at the local "watering hole" near where she lived, got really drunk, and while driving home in her new Cadillac atop the 60 foot levies, went straight at a turn and was airborne for 50 or 60 feet, nosed dived into an orchard. She wasn't found until a day later by a Mexican irrigator...
...She had survived the crash and the Deputy I talked to said "she was one tough lady as she had gotten out of the totaled destroyed car and with a broken back had crawled at least a hundred yards before she died...
Sometime we only learn names of people,
names of family when they are dead.
Sometimes we give them new ones to protect ourselves,
protect ourselves from their memories.
Sometimes you have to go back,
go back just to hear the stories,
stories that tell us who we are.
And when that time comes to tell them,
we know that our time is borrowed.
Stories are all we really have.
Not A Happy Ending
For someone born to a man who had wanted a son, life was not easy...
...She rode with everyone while we were in Texas, helping with doctoring the injured and sick livestock during the roundup time and during the summer when school was out. Mother tried to keep her home under all kinds of "mothers'" pretenses so she didn't have to do that hard work and knowing Dad would be on her case for not roping and holding a 1200 pound angry steer...
...Life was not easy despite her having tied for the highest IQ in her schools' history. Rumor had them near 200...
...She was a natural writer and speaker. In high school she tried out for the Lions speech contest and went all the way to State, competing against hundreds of other gifted students and won 2nd. An unequaled feat since by any students from that school. She also tried out for girls basketball and made the cut of course but Dad wouldn't let her play. Thought it was not appropriate or some other crazy idea...
....Always taller and bigger than the other girls when she was growing up. As an adult, memory has her near 6'3". Not only taller but faster and for sure tougher...
...Later, she met him. They are smart, strong and could handle almost any situation, that is except Vee-da. They use to get into it and even he was trained to deal with bad guys I think Vee-da could beat him up and every time they started drinking a fight would follow. All of us loved him. He still contacts us every few years. Great guy! He was an Ann Rand type!...
...That was the last of our conversations as she was to return to her place, get her personal stuff and make the break. However, she had stopped at the local "watering hole" near where she lived, got really drunk, and while driving home in her new Cadillac atop the 60 foot levies, went straight at a turn and was airborne for 50 or 60 feet, nosed dived into an orchard. She wasn't found until a day later by a Mexican irrigator...
...She had survived the crash and the Deputy I talked to said "she was one tough lady as she had gotten out of the totaled destroyed car and with a broken back had crawled at least a hundred yards before she died...
Sometime we only learn names of people,
names of family when they are dead.
Sometimes we give them new ones to protect ourselves,
protect ourselves from their memories.
Sometimes you have to go back,
go back just to hear the stories,
stories that tell us who we are.
And when that time comes to tell them,
we know that our time is borrowed.
Stories are all we really have.
(Now excuse me, the hour is late and I am tired.)
Will I really enjoy reading your posts. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteMomotaro: You are welcome...though I'm not sure that I enjoy putting them up.
ReplyDeletethis is no longer about "enjoying" putting them up. It is your brain spinning, and sending signals to your typing fingers. Things that need to be said, words that need to get out.
ReplyDeleteI am hooked on this blog since day one.
A funeral destroyed the paper like fragility of my relations with my family. The hypocricy that surrounds the death and the ceremony to mourn them is not usually the way the person would have wanted...and those who come and don't come are a curious set of stories too!.
ReplyDeleteI think Vee da would be pleased with a simple yet deep tribute to her life that was not long enough.
Bigg: Simply allowing thoughts to flow, finding voice, and participating in the dialogue...this is all quite a new experience. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteChris: No funeral. Only through a PI was it learned where her ashes were placed. Made the break, but not from Ben. He'd gotten out long before the final chapter of that story.
What people would have wanted...now it's all a question of timing. I've got a duty and there's no use hoping for miracles. The source of memories may already be fading.