This has been a lot on my mind over the last couple of months. I have really reached a good place and reconciliation with the good and the bad associated with my Father relationship. But it has bugged me that I have had this empty, no feelings at all about my Mom. True it was 8 years ago that she passed but really, I was closer to her all my life. So why this nothing inside?
I've blamed it mostly on the fact that Dad totally kept us at arms length throughout the two year period that Mom went through her cancer. So I never had a chance to have those really hard and powerful discussions and experiences that I did with my Dad. It was an important part of the closure process that never took place.
Then this week two events happened that have changed things.
First my daughter #3 in Amsterdam wrote a lovely post on her blog where she was reminiscing about her memories of her Grandma (my Mom). Reading that brought back a flood of experience memories. Then today we got the shipment of goods from my Dad's house that we had picked out. In that shipment were some, not so valuable, but very meaningful objects.
A set of heavy glass mixing bowls. I loved these. Mom had these for as long as I can remember. And when I made my commitment to come often after we moved to Albuquerque, we would often use these for our cooking together. That big one on the bottom was great for mixing pasta with sauce. And the second largest one was always filled with mashed potatoes when we were making the Thanksgiving dinner.
With these two things a whole lot has been coming back. And a lot of pain associated with not properly having put them to rest. But that is a good thing.
6 comments:
This is a wonderful post.
Thank you for sharing!
Between you and Lexi, I am spending my morning sniffling! So happy that your shipment brought meaningful memories and not the dining room table, lol!
oh dad - just read this after our chat. Thank you for sharing. It's hard to hear about this all in retrospect, and I wish beyond all logic that I could somehow make things right but of course that is beyond us all now.
Sigh!
It's funny how when you're young, you think somehow that you'll have everything all figured out when you're older and won't struggle with emotional difficulties and such. And the older you get, the more you realize that life continues to be a challenge and you constantly have to come to terms with various life experiences. It sounds like you're on the road to some kind of resolution with the loss of your mom, which, as you said, is a good thing.
Oh, that sounds like a lot to think about. Thanks for sharing.
Aww, those emotional trigger items are very interesting. Who would have thought it would be mixing bowls, but it makes a lot of sense given your cooking passions. Sounds like a good emotional time.
Post a Comment