Memories

Wednesday marked one year since Mom passed away.  On that day, we no longer had a living parent amongst us as Dad had passed away 17 years before.  It is a strange feeling and one that, although you know you will face in your lifetime, you just do not understand until it happens.

Today my sister, my brother, and I met at the cemetery in Vincennes Indiana to see Mom’s headstone for the first time.  I am an avid photographer and thought it would be cool to get a picture of us by the headstones but I also understood if that idea didn’t thrill them.  My brother was up for it and my sister chose to direct and take the picture.  The picture above is of me – the oldest sibling – and my brother – the youngest sibling.

Mom passed away in the fall – one of the most beautiful seasons of the four.  And the drive from Indianapolis to southern Indiana was full of beautiful fall foliage and many Halloween decorations.  It was kind of fitting because Mom loved the seasons and she loved holidays.  Her house was always decorated for Halloween long after the kids in the neighborhood had grown and gone.  And although it was a bit nippy weather-wise today, it was not even close to how cold it was the day we buried Mom’s ashes next to Dad.

Many memories have flooded in this past year of both Mom and Dad.  And many memories have especially flooded in while the year mark was coming up.  Today it was comforting to have those memories.  We ate at a favorite childhood hole-in-the-wall restaurant, drove by our favorite childhood home, drove by the home our grandparents built and lived in many years, and stopped at Elnora to get the best colby cheese anywhere.

But our most exciting memory of the day had to be finding the market with all the pumpkins.  There were small pumpkins, large pumpkins to sit on, Casper pumpkins (as my sister calls them), gourds, apples, mums, you name it.  It was a beautiful market and one we’ll definitely stop by again and again.

Here is my sister enjoying the big pumpkins.  (The lady at the market suggested we get this photo.)

My sister and I shared a thought on the drive home – we sure miss calling Mom to tell her about events like finding this neat little market.  She would have loved hearing all the details – what color pumpkins were there, the beautiful purple aster we saw along the way, how Grandma and Grandpa’s house looked, etc.  But then when I think about it, Mom probably knows anyway – that’s probably why we found this neat little place to have fun and act like kids again.  🙂

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.