Another Trip
I’m packing again, only 3 more days before I board my Royal Jordanian flight to New York, on my way to Washington DC. Although I begin my trip there, I will also within a month’s time, go to upper New York, St. Joseph Missouri and Detroit Michigan. How many times since 1963 have I done this? Too bad I never kept count, but I expect that I could figure it out if I would go through the hundreds of letters that I have, written mostly between me and my mother! Yes, I am the packrat, the one with the 1963 newspapers about the Kennedy assassination. In my collection I also have more than 30 year’s accumulation of family letters. A couple of years ago I read though about 20 years worth and then stopped for awhile… I will go back to them someday…
Over those years I have raised a family and luckily have been able to visit my huge, healthy, vibrant family in the States…and then from afar, watched my loved ones slowly leave us. This time I will be seeing all of my remaining elderly Aunts and Uncles greatly diminished over the years. Dad still has a brother, 97 years old, a sister, 96 and mom’s sister, now 93. The highlight of this visit will be to celebrate the 70th anniversary of my Uncle Brook and his wife, my Aunt Dolores. After loosing my parents, they have remained a steady source of strength. Due to their anniversary, a mini reunion is developing and it will join me with my sisters and also with a couple of my first cousins. We will be meeting for a joyous occasion instead of the sad funerals that have united us in the past…but we are also acutely aware that these people who are so precious to us won’t be with us too much longer.
I know that as I age, losing loved ones is inevitable and being so far away adds to the pain. But thankfully I have been able to make many of those “past reunions” and after this one, I wonder when the next one will be? When we were swept off our feet by these Jordanians so many years ago and we made their home ours, this is one dimension, in the passion of the moment, that many of us didn’t consider!
kag
Over those years I have raised a family and luckily have been able to visit my huge, healthy, vibrant family in the States…and then from afar, watched my loved ones slowly leave us. This time I will be seeing all of my remaining elderly Aunts and Uncles greatly diminished over the years. Dad still has a brother, 97 years old, a sister, 96 and mom’s sister, now 93. The highlight of this visit will be to celebrate the 70th anniversary of my Uncle Brook and his wife, my Aunt Dolores. After loosing my parents, they have remained a steady source of strength. Due to their anniversary, a mini reunion is developing and it will join me with my sisters and also with a couple of my first cousins. We will be meeting for a joyous occasion instead of the sad funerals that have united us in the past…but we are also acutely aware that these people who are so precious to us won’t be with us too much longer.
I know that as I age, losing loved ones is inevitable and being so far away adds to the pain. But thankfully I have been able to make many of those “past reunions” and after this one, I wonder when the next one will be? When we were swept off our feet by these Jordanians so many years ago and we made their home ours, this is one dimension, in the passion of the moment, that many of us didn’t consider!
kag
posted by joladies at Saturday, April 29, 2006
2 Comments:
Thanks for your lovely words reminding us all about the other dimension in our lives; one that is 'put on hold.' Hope you have a super reunion.
Your trips have now become my trips. "Another trip" is how I live my life. But those trips are what sustain me. I know now why you dragged us all over each summer. Without those "another trip"s, we would not have the memories, the love, the roots, or the connections that we live by today. Keep making those trips!
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