It does not seem possible that almost a week has passed since I last wrote to you. It has been an interesting week with lots of contacts from the past. I have heard from another of my aunts in North Carolina with whom I have not been touch for many years. We picked up right where we left off. She is the widow of my Uncle Robert, my father's brother. Aunt Louise was always a Renaissance woman - so far ahead of the trends and so creative. She was always an amazing person and she still is. I remember she had a closed in porch on the back of her house where she made silk flowers and silk flower arrangements long before anyone ever heard of them. She also made the BEST pound cake ever and she did give mom and I the recipe but it has long since disappeared - it was so good that we may have actually eaten the recipe by mistake!
I also received an e-mail from my childhood friend George and his wife, Maureen. We are in touch fairly often so hearing from them was not a big surprise. What was a surprise was that he had been contacted by another group of old friends who are having a reunion in Maryland this summer. It is just the fellows but some of the names he mentioned in his e-mail brought back such memories! I said to George that we had such innocent and gentle childhoods and teenage years - the things we did that we thought were naughty are laughable in retrospect - except that damnable smoking......but that is subject for another posting not this one filled with happy thoughts.
Perhaps it is one of the side effects of facing down one's mortality that causes you to dwell on the past and remember all the people who touched your life - perhaps this is where the expression "my life flashed before my eyes" developed. I suppose if you have time to prepare, the flashing is slow motion. (Not that I am expecting anything but good news next week from MSKCC!)
Many afternoons were spent in Sid's Stationery Store where Sylvia and Sid ran a small luncheonette, sold newspapers, tobacco products, cards, comics, - their family consisting of Sid and Sylvia, Mark and Alan lived in the back of the store. They were so good to us when we were kids and teenagers. They never chased us from the store and we knew we were in a safe place to try out those new flirting skills with the soda jerk who might have been filling in for Sid. Sylvia worried that we were not eating enough and would take us back into their home and feed us some wonderful, tasty treat that she was cooking up. This is why I do not understand why none of my Jewish women friends cook. I grew up with this incredible woman cooking on a tiny stove in a tiny kitchen with such love and kindness. When I finally reached the age of going to business (got a job in Manhattan), I would stop in Sid's for coffee each morning. The coffee would be poured and sitting on the counter as I raced in from the cold.....there was never a charge from my friend Sid, who always called me "Polly." Not, not because of my endless chattering but because he said I looked like Polly Bergman. No wonder I am confused about who I am, I look like so many people that I don't recognize myself! (Jack always said I looked like Susan Pleshette when we started dating.) I guess the only thing I have in common with any of these beauties is that I had dark hair and fairly nice eyes. Now my hair is silver and my eyes are OK if I remember to put on some makeup.
I digress. The point I want to make is that there is a chance that I might be able to be in touch with some of these people who made me, me. I might have the chance to tell Mark how much respect I had for his parents and how sorry I was to have lost touch with them after I married and moved away from Flushing. I might get to find out where life took the rest of Sid's Sandlot Football team - Virginia and I were the down markers only we did not know what that was! We held a ten foot chain stretched between us on the sideline and were annoyed because we were so far apart. I imagine we drifted together occasionally for a word or two much to the chagrin of the "players."
One of the people I remember most fondly is a fellow named Paul who was at the same Molloy dance as Virginia, Eileen and I on Saturday night. I was being as silly as any fourteen year old can be and he equally so. I breathed a sigh of relief when that dance was over that I would not have to see him again because I was mortified for being so silly - that is until I walked into Sid's the next afternoon and found Paul sitting at the counter. He lived right across the street from the stationery store! Life's funny that way, isn't it? I would love to hear about his family and tell him about mine - especially that the silly fourteen year old is now the proud Nana of beautiful Agnes Rose and, by the grace of God, Jack and I will celebrate our fortieth wedding anniversary in May.
Life spins its mystical twists and turns, fashioning us, polishing us, prodding us and if we are really lucky, gives us a chance to revisit that which has made us, well, us.
Keep those prayers going for my CAT scan on Friday. I'll have the results of Monday.
Believe! Hope!
As always, love from me to you!
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