Celebration

Today I watched the memorial service for Teddy Kennedy.  Speaker after speaker told wonderful stories of Teddy’s love for life; of his generosity and genuine concern for everyone he met, whether a friend or a foe.  In that room (John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, Massachusetts) there was so much joy and so much sadness.  Today was a day to remember the things and people that he loved so much.j

I came away from with a new respect and awareness of Teddy Kennedy as a person.  Today I came to love him and miss him even more.

I think, too, that in that room we were able to see that the dream will live on.  He instilled in his countless nieces and nephews, in his own children and grandchildren, and every Kennedy relative, the need and the duty to serve the American Public.  That’s Me and You.  I think each of us should bow our head and thank the Powers That Be for sending us Teddy Kennedy.  He showed that all of us, regardless of how imperfect we are, have the capacity and the duty to leave this earth a better place.

I think that the younger Kennedy generation has learned that lesson well and will make their uncle/father/grandfather proud as they follow in his footsteps.

What a wonderful send off.  What a beautiful celebration of a man’s life.

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Learning, Childhood, and Positive Memories

My older daughter works as a nanny for a family that has a 3 year old girl and a 5 year old boy.   She has been working for them since September and has grown quite attached to the kids.

When she first started working with them, she would call me and ask me for recipes for things I used to make for/with my kids when they were little; things like homemade paste and homemade play-doh type clay.  She would remember things we did when she was a child and ask me how I had done it so she could do it with her kids (well I call them her children but it’s really her charges).

It made me feel good that those little things I did for them as kids stuck in their minds with such positive impressions that she wanted to replicate the experience for the children with whom she works.   It also made me more and more involved with the kids, even though I have only met them once.

The little boy wants to learn to read before he starts kindergarten in the fall.  He’s quite bright and has tested as gifted but he also has some special needs.  As a former teacher, I have been able to look online and guide my daughter to some sites where she can get some help  for working with the little boy.  I’ve also started noticing kids’ reading and phonics workbooks when I go to thrift shops where they are cheap enough for me to buy and send to the little boy.

The other day my daughter told me that the little boy is on the cusp of reading and loves to work in the workbooks I sent to him.  His parents are thrilled with the workbooks too and they sit with him in the evenings and help him with the work and they give him “homework” for him to do in the workbooks while they are at work.

It made me very happy that I was able to help my daughter help the little boy.  It also makes me glad that my daughter’s childhood was positive enough so that she thinks of it with fondness and wants to share that kind of experience with “her children”!

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Update

I have, all of the sudden, been plagued by migraines. I used to get them all the time but in the past four years, they have been rare. On Monday I got one and it hasn’t left yet. So instead of fixing the posts I have drafted for publication here, I will wait til I am thinking straight and feeling better.

However, I did want to update those of you who have asked about my friend Dean who disappeared in the snow in early January. For those that haven’t followed my blog, the story is here. His body was finally recovered last Friday and the coroner made positive identification on Saturday. So at least he is accounted for. I’m sure it is both settling and unsettling for his family, but at least he has been found.

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Cemeteries And Change

I went to the cemetery to visit my brother’s plot the other day. I had never thought of a cemetery as a place of change but when I drove up today, the small street adjacent to the cemetery was now open through to the large main street where the cemetery is located. On the corner was a very new statue with some cherubic figures lounging around a cross next to the words “Calvary Catholic Cemetery.” Beyond the new figures I could see that the high fence that had supposedly prevented people from coming onto the grounds after closing time, had been torn down. Now the whole world could look in from Alum Rock Boulevard and see the cleaned up grounds.

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