Between the Windows: I Cried

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

I Cried

I went to the State Fair yesterday and I cried.

I believe my mother-in-law would have been very happy to see why I was crying. Of the seven entries I made in Antiques, 6 of them were her family heirlooms. Of those six, there were three blue (First place) ribbons, two red (Second place) ribbons, and one green (Sixth place) ribbon. What an honor that was to have all those family heirlooms appreciated.

Here are the photos, through the glass cases.

And this commemorative piece I bought in an antique shop on a trip Mom and I made. I wrote about it in an earlier post.

2010: The sun began to warm my face even before I woke up to see it. It reached across the room to my bed. My bed is a green flex-steel couch that I have been sleeping on since my husband died three years ago. I often lay there thinking before getting up to start my day.

Thinking about the depth of the sun’s reach made me think about the photos I wanted to hang on the walls and where they should go. It was obvious that they should go between the windows, where that reach wouldn’t harm them. The windows would give me a direct view to the current world; the photos between them would give me a direct view to the past.

That’s what I do for enlightenment and enjoyment – sometimes I live in the past.

Genealogy, or family history, began as a study when my son was in the 8^th grade. We were homeschoolers that year and it seemed a good way to study history. It became a passion for me but now has settled down to a frequent activity.

Through my research I have come in touch with people from the past. Often they are people of whom the memory has nearly faded away. That’s the reason I put them between the windows – to keep them from fading away entirely.

This is their story and mine.