Thursday, June 27, 2013

Stained Glass

We have several pieces of stained glass hanging in the windows of our home. This is my favorite, because Joe made it many years ago.  I love the way light brings the designs in leaded glass to life, changing as the day progresses and light falls in different places.  I, love the glowing colors and flowing designs.  After many years of absence from the art of cutting glass, fitting lead or copper around sharp edges, and soldering pieces together in a beautiful puzzle assembly, Joe has decided to take up his soldering iron and work again.  I am looking forward to the pieces he will choose to create.  But most of all I look forward to the joy it brings him, the artist!

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Nana's Doll

Nana's Doll           

When she was a little girl
 my mother was proud
of a doll whose smooth porcelain face
shone pinkly beneath her chestnut curls
twinkling blue eyes that went to sleep
 when Opal laid her down
Dressed in rosy dimity
dainty with a fine lace peplum
her bonnet matched
Modesty satisfied, her sheer skirt
 hid crochet- edged petticoats and pantaloons
Tiny socks and shoes, a precious
embroidered velvet pouch
on a chain to hang on her wrist.

When I was a little girl
the doll lay in what was left of her box
wrapped in an old white sheet
stored in Mother's quilt chest
I begged to see her, fascinated
 by her age and her outfits
oh, so many!
 handmade by Grandma Terrell
and Great Grandmother Curley,
my French great grandmother.
full length coat with buttons
made of blue twill and paneled -
soft pink rose patterned percale.
folded in neat stacks: print dresses, tucked bodices,
 gathered skirts, nightgowns, a cap and a blanket
all discolored by age and smoke
 from a family house fire.
Why didn't I ask her name?

When my granddaughters ask
to see the doll, they are intrigued
 with the story, awed
at how old she is
They feel sorry that she lives in a box
I am glad no one asks her name
but I am trying to follow instructions
written in flowing pencil script
on the tattered piece from her first box:

“Take Care of Her”     Santa Claus



  ~ Mary Ann Parker, written March 2013

Friday, June 14, 2013

Ladies Day at the Spa

When any one of my granddaughters is here, we have fun. But when all 3 of the younger girls get together, there is never a dull moment.  I may leave a few prompts or props for them to find (new stuff in the dressup trunk, empty boxes, beads and shells with the art supplies, and plenty of fresh fruit and veggies for creating snacks), but the ways they come up with to use those things never fail to keep me laughing.

Last weekend we were grateful for heavy afternoon rains on both days.  But climbing trees and dancing in the rain changed to indoor play when thunder and lightning deemed it necessary.  Undaunted, they retired to the bedroom where the dressup supplies are kept.  A few minutes later, when I checked on them, I found Skye with her turban wrap reclining on the chaise lounge and was told they were having a Spa day!  Furthermore, they needed cucumber slices for their eyes.  What's a grandmother to do but slice up a garden fresh cucumber and deliver?

Maddie and Jordann added their veggie beauty aid and lounged on a mountain of pillows.


But apparently the under 10 set does not require lengthy lounging.  In fact, it makes them hungry!

So they ate their cucumbers, which probably beat anything else for a refreshing treatment!

I love being a grandmother! Who needs a day at a real Spa?  I don't need cucumbers to make me glow!

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Tea Parties

This tiny china tea set has been mine since I was a little girl. I don't remember when I got it,but  most likely it was a birthday gift or a Christmas present. My granddaughters have loved using the tea set for birthday tea,  princess tea, and tea parties for no special reason at all other than our delight in each other. Lauren  wrote invitations to the little girls next door and we set Grandma's table with a cloth, made tea sandwiches and cookies and poured tea out of a teapot.  Skye has had countless tea parties with me, her PapaJoe, her Duckle Ben, and her best friend Anna.  Maddie has tea parties when she comes to stay, and Jordann has tea parties with her sister and cousin now.  I was proud that Maddie wanted her 7th birthday party to be a family tea party!   (See post for March 21)




Wednesday, May 29, 2013

One Cat

This is our cat Angel, who loves to pick a pretty spot and pose.  We have had other cats like that. Once we had a Persian cat who loved to pose on our only Turkish rug. Another cat preferred to curl up in an antique wash bowl with a turquoise rim that matched his eyes.

A few weeks ago, Angel's playmate, our cat Bella, disappeared - we looked and looked but there is no trace of her.  We miss her but for now, Angel is our one cat, and I think she likes it that way.  Goodbye, Bella.  If Angel knows where you went, she is not telling.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Legacy


The roses covering this arbor are Peggy Martin Roses, also called the Katrina Rose, because this rose was the only one of hundreds owned by Peggy Martin and her husband before the flooding and destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina.  Surviving after being submerged under 20 feet of salt water, this plant endured.  It reminds me of the quality of endurance I consider my legacy exhibited in my great grandmother's story.


    I have included stories about my great grandmother, Ernestine Curley, in past blog posts, but recently wrote this poem.  I believe her legacy of  deep faith, strength, perserverance, and fortitude showed in both my grandmother and mother.  I am thankful for them all.


 Legacy of Endurance



Clara and Bienvenue Paschal Augier boarded a ship in the south of France
Sailed with their children to the port of New Orleans,
 Charles, Josephine Antoinette and little Ernestine Matilde
who began to speak English when she was three
Her mama never learned

Her papa was a saddle maker
trapped in a burning building
he jumped to his death
then the family moved -
 Old Finn Castle, Henderson County in Texas
Ernestine went to school
with a handsome boy named Matthew
October 30, 1872 they were married.
Six children were born
William, Charles, Ozark and Osro who were twins
Othinet Josephine they called Jessie,
Matthew Ann
this youngest a baby girl with a boy's name
December 1979, Matthew, shot
while on a hunting trip by his best friend,
never saw his youngest.
His dying request was that the baby
Ernestine carried be given his name,
and, if born a girl, to be given to
his sister Victoria.

Young, widowed, with
6 little children
Ernestine married again
a man rumored to have been
a fugitive from justice
Three more babies conceived
When James Curley died
six years later, once more
Ernestine again buried her husband
 while preparing to birth another child.
Two husbands, neither of whom lived
to see their last child born.
She moved the the
five living children from her first marriage
and three children of second, pregnant again,
to her sister's home.
She knew about endurance.

While these battles happened in her life,
she witnessed  traumas of her adopted country:
 the Civil War,
 Reconstruction
the Spanish American War
World War I
Hitler's invasion of Europe

Ernestine's strength and goodness shone
One son said she was the best woman
he ever knew
With so many children, there were
many grandchildren.
She was present at the birth of every one.
Bringing hand stitched caps and blankets.

When Ernestine could no longer live alone,
she moved in with her youngest daughter, Clyde
She knelt at her prie dieu everyday
Treasured a tiny holy water font
She patched and mended pants, shirts, and socks
turning collars and darning heels
Her tiny stitches could hardly be seen.
She taught her granddaughter Opal to say
Yes Ma'am and No Sir
She rocked her great granddaughter Mary Ann.



Friday, May 17, 2013

Tribute

The year 2006 was a year of both great loss and great gain for me.  My mother died in September of that year, which is a loss I am still acutely aware of.  But in the months before her death, even as I helped to care for her and ease her transition from this life to the next, I received two immensely important gifts, gifts of sight. Only a few months earlier I was diagnosed with a degenrative corneal disease which quickly robbed me of a great deal of my functional vison.  I had Fuch's Corneal Dystrophy, for which there is no treatment or cure.  The only option was to have my own corneas removed and replaced with corneas from a donor:  cornea transplants.  This week marks the 7th anniversary of my first gift.  On May 15, 2006, I had surgery to receive my first cornea, in my left eye.  Two months later, in July, I had the same surgery for my right eye. I am eternally grateful to the families whose choices made that possible for me, and I urge all who hear my story to consider electing organ donation and making that known to your family.

The very first realization I had that my surgery had indeed been successful came as I sat in the shade by the little fish pond in our garden. All landscape had been blurry for long enough that what happened was quite like pointing my camera lens, zooming, and focusing.  I suddenly became amazed that I was seeing with brilliant clarity, and the object was a small purple iris a few feet away.  I was and am so thankful to see. In tribute to my donors and to all who are challenged with impaired vision, I am sharing some more garden photographs with you.  These flowers grow in the gardens at Antique Rose Emporium near Brenham, TX.