Raspberries (Jeanne)

I just picked and ate some raspberries. It reminded me of something my son Alex recently said. I had asked him, what is a memory you have of Grandma Eileen?

The first thing that came to mind for him was raspberries. he remembered her offering him some vanilla ice cream with raspberries on top. I thought that was a sweet answer (literally and figuratively!).

I grew up with both raspberries and lilacs in plentiful amounts. I remember my mom using her big soup pot with handles to collect the berries. I didn't like how they got squashed in there, though. I preferred to just pick and eat.

I also don't like my raspberries chilled . . . fresh off the plant is my preference. But my mother liked to collect them and put them in the fridge. And put them on vanilla ice cream. It makes me happy to remember this.

The photo is from our plants at Strawberry Lake. There weren't many red ones left because I'd already picked and eaten so many! Also, the deer flies chased me away.

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A Dad Story: Memories Lost (Jeanne)

It has been two years since my dad died. (Today is 1.22.2018. He died on 1.21.2016.) In getting rid of scraps of paper in my life (de-cluttering; I'm not yet ready for Swedish Death Cleaning!), I found an old receipt with some notes on it. "broken hand" "Dr. Dumont" "St. Joseph nuns" "Campbellton" Google brought me here: St. Joseph Hospital - http://www.rhsj.org/en/former-apostolic-sites_382_-21.php Religieuses Hospitalieres de Saint-Joseph I can't find information on Dr. Dumont (not that I tried that hard . . . ) but here's what I remember of that conversation with my dad over two years ago (I don't have the best memory!). He was talking about bequests after my mom died. He wanted to send money to places that were meaningful to him - the convent where his sister, Sister Beatrice, served, for example. He also mentioned Dr. Dumont, who had fixed his "broken hand" when he was a kid. He said they couldn'...

Fifteen Minutes of Fame (Louise)

From Louise: In Corpus Crispy (aka Corpus Christi), I was with Eileen and Larry. It was a cloudy day and we had taken chairs down to the pier in their swimsuits with reading material looking for sun anyway. When I saw a TV news van pulling up, I said, "Oh no! This can't be good." It was the afternoon weather report. They wanted to get a shot of the curve of the coastline, showing the weather. They featured us! Frozen Minnesotans."Where are you from?" and all that. When they were done with the spot, we asked about a good place to eat cheap seafood. A local place. So we ate at the place they recommended. When we were checking out, the waitress asked how we heard about them. And we said, "Well the news guy on channel whatever it was . . . " And she said, "Oh! That was you! I saw that!" So we were famous.

Another Song Memory (Jeanne)

It's weird for me to think that my perception of childhood was that we weren't very musical . . . and yet I keep having memories of songs from my childhood! Yesterday the song "It's Me, Oh Lord" came to mind and I started singing it. What a blast from the 70s! I know we sang it as part of the worship music at St. Joan of Arc Church, but I also wish I could have a conversation with my parents about the words. It definitely stems from Matthew 7:3-5 about taking the log from your own eye before trying to remove the splinter from someone else's. (Actually, I say "definitely" because that's my own perspective. Perhaps I'm way off!) Anyhow, I can absolutely say that I need prayer. Every day, every hour of the day. We sang this song a lot - mostly at church, but at other times, too. It's a good reminder that I am in need of prayer. I need God's grace, love, and mercy. I wonder what my parents thought about this song. Here's a link ...

Eileen and Larry Somers

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