Portraits of my family

Thanksgiving 2009 - Gerry, NY

Every Thanksgiving my brother, sister, my husband & I head to our parent's home in Gerry, NY. 

For Thanksgiving 2009 all my parents' children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren were there.  Along with some of my parents siblings and their children. 

It was awesome! !

We are beginning to have a few empty places at the table now. 

We said "it's so wonderful that EVERYONE is here this year!"

and at the same time we are all thinking, 

"NO! Everyone is NOT here!"  

Family gatherings usually have that tinge of the bitter-sweet. 

My brother is missing his wife. 
His children are missing their mother. 
My sister is missing Frank and
her children are missing their father. 
Heather is missing her Dad and her grandfather. 
I am missing my 16 y/o son.  
My daughter is missing her brother. 
My mother even tried to rescue a slice of stuffed pepper for Uncle Harold,
Then it hits her.  She stands there with a blank look on her face holding the plate. 

Life - What a Treasure!

Four (4) years ago tonight, I was given a gift

My husband!

No – it wasn’t my wedding.
We’d been married 38 years.

So - how could I possibly be given something I already had?

Well . . sometimes we do not know we have
something, until it is taken away -
or, thankfully, 'almost' taken away.

My strong energetic husband
was unwillingly & unwittingly
plunged into a fight for his very life.

Literally!

4 years ago tonight he was on a ventilator!
In surgery into the early morning hours,
as an awesome trauma team fought to save his life.
Fought to put him back together.

Bloomin' Vinca

My pretty evergreen ground cover, Vinca (or myrtle) - has some beautiful purple flowers on it today.

What's the deal? Is there something I haven't been told?
Did I miss something?

Like - did I sleep through winter and spring is here?!?
Woo Hoo!
YES!

Veteran's Day

Today I think of my 88 y/o Dad.

Corporal Charles E Beckwith.

57mm Anti-tank gunner;
405th Anti-tank Company;
102nd Infantry Division (the Ozarks);
serving in the 9th Army during WWII.

On September 11, 1944, his unit, 'The Ozarks' left quietly in the night, around midnight. Gliding silently and in 'black-out' conditions - past the Statute of Liberty and out of the NY Harbor to begin the journey across the Atlantic.

A convoy of forty-six ships of all types zig-zagged across the Atlantic. Escorted by the Navy to help protect against German submarines, which were sighted at one point on the 12 day trip to Cherbourg, France.

My Dad endured weeks & months of rain, snow, artillary, forests, hedgerows, more artillary, more rain, floods, and battle after battle after battle.

From France, into Belgium, and across Germany.

Crossing the flooding Roer, the Rhine, and on to the Elbe.