Once upon a time…. we used to go to the races regularly. Indeed, my beloved mom is on the track at Charles Town Races where she wanted her sweet loved horses to run over her every day! They still do. And Saratoga trips for the Travers Stakes were some of the most cherished trips we took, and had breakfast at the track, watching workouts with other visitors. I did this painting and don’t have it anymore. My daughter carried it off to Arizona along with my grandkids, leaving us old folks behind! Ugh. Miss them all, so much!
Author: vharlow
Favorite Pics of Kids
I miss having the grandkids everyday so much. Sometimes I just spend time looking at old pictures of them. Of course, they’ve all grown by now, and even the youngest is 16, and far, far away. Looking forward to a possible visit this spring, though, when school lets out either for spring break, or after the semester. Here’s a few of my favorites.
My Sis Wanted to be a Tree! So She is!
Actually a lovely red maple, in a forest of green right back of her home of many, many years, where she and Mike walked the dogs so many times. After a tearful memorial service on Saturday, we assembled a team, got all the necessary equipment, and did the deed. It’s healthy, and even stood on it’s own when we removed the stick, to see if it would. Of course, we put the stick back in anyway, for a while. Piper was with us, and got very muddy and dirty out in the woods. Evening rain made it an ideal day to plant.
Lost My Beautiful Sis!
It is with heavy heart…..isn’t that how so many such postings begin? Well, heavier, still than even that. My sis, a constant while I was growing up, was beautiful! Also, a force of nature few ever tangled with successfully. She was willful, and positive. A role model many would thrive from, if followed.
As children, she was my protector, and seldom did bullies bother me after tangling with my beautiful sis! I was her shadow and she took me with her almost everywhere, partly as a self-protection technique to easily spurn undesirable suitors! Ha! Yes, that was Nan. Those undesired always tried to befriend me, with the purpose of pumping me for information about my beautiful sister. I was onto that.
Her loving husband of 51 years and I pulled together a short obituary, and it’s posted here. We hunted for good pictures of her, and remembered since she studied photography, it was usually her taking the pictures, so those we have are fewer than we thought.
When her health began to fail was first, I believe, a bout of cancer in the area of the throat, and radiation was the treatment of choice. However, that left a constant problem with swallowing, and almost every time she ate, she would have to upchuck some of it. A sorry state of affairs. Top that off with Rheumatoid Arthritis, and many allergies to meds that might have been easier to take than those she was prescribed. A cyst formed on her spine in an bad spot and no one would touch it. Her pain was constant, and unrelenting.
Then a stroke. Fortunately, it left no terrible after effects, and while recovering from that scare, along came COVID. Of course, with her immune system already compromised, she and her husband both got it. His antibody treatment was highly successful, and she wound up in hospital, gravely ill.
After that, she had a series of falls. Once, went to ER unconscious for no apparent reason, which had obviously caused her fall. Heart? She did have AFIB and a pacemaker, and maybe that tied to all her many medications for other various ills caused that, but I don’t know. Not being a doc. But, then, the docs didn’t know either. Her balance was all pretty much gone. Then she had more falls, over and over. God alone knows what caused most of it. They said congestive heart failure near the end. But this all continued for over a two year period, and she fought it, and the constant bleeding from little punctures or scratches from the blood thinners.
Through all of this, her biggest concerns were always for her husband! She never lost her care for others! Big, big heart. Fighting pain and weakness, she worried about others! Suffered through our baby brothers death, and worked at getting his ashes interred properly, a task that took more than a year. She cared. Greatly. For others.
That’s just a testament to her loving heart, and demonstrates her character. She loved her husband, those who worked with her, loved her dog, loved me, and her other family. We had plans to get her well enough to go back to the pool and build strength with water aerobics. And now, that will never happen.
But, she’s got no more pain. She’s at peace. And God has her, along with our intrepid Mom, and brother, Larry. And of us four, I’m the last. And I miss her like crazy. And she will be a tree soon!
God’s Beauty Everywhere
Amazing, but first thing in the morning, when I fetch the paper and walk the dog, this black gum tree just is there, always, reminding me that each tree, each leaf, each human, each living entity is unique, individual, and not really a copy of anything or anyone else.
That tree, with just a bit of light behind it’s beautiful branches, each distinct, is a constant reminder of the wonder of God’s love, that all this and so much more is here for us to remind us of that love all the time.
Yet so many folks have no clue of the beauty all around them. Maybe God created artists just to show people what they are missing! Yet, God is the greater artist, having designed all this. Thanks, God. Thanks for your son, and thanks for all your creation that you so freely gave to us all, sinners or not! It’s up to us to choose to see.