This feature photo you might think is a remembrance for Veteran’s or Remembrance Day. For me it is a remembrance for my mom. There was a certain section in her vegetable garden that she always had her poppies.
I recently found an old packet of poppy seeds that my mother gave me probably over 30 years ago. I kept saving the packet for when I was living somewhere for a long time. Back when we first married, we seemed to move every few years.
I planted them this year, but I waited too long as none of the seeds germinated.
Remembrance Birthday:
As such, I decided to do a remembrance on what would have been her 87th birthday.
My grandson and I had a scavenger hunt in my house where we looked for things about my mom and his great-grandma. The crocheted blanket was actually being used in our grandson’s bedroom.
Of course you can tell when this was probably made as it has brown and gold in it. Hey, that style is coming back! (For those not aware, brown and gold were very popular in the 70’s)
We also went searching for the photos around the house and the ring given to my mom on her 25th wedding anniversary (of course in a jewelry box for safekeeping), and many more.
This was spur of the moment with whoever could come for dinner and cake. I thought and thought about what was her favorite dessert and I couldn’t think of anything. I even asked one of my sisters and she didn’t have anything.
Cake:
I finally came up with chocolate mayonnaise cake. My mom didn’t make this cake, but my grandma did. She made it so often that I decided to try it. The funny thing is that I do not have her recipe, but it wasn’t hard to find a similar recipe on the internet.
As I am writing this blog, I now remember a cake that my mom would make, but still it wasn’t her requested birthday cake.
She called it “Rotten Banana Cake” with chocolate frosting. Of course, she was being thrifty, which I have inherited from her and so I always try to use up foods. Isn’t everybody thrifty?
“Rotten Banana Cake” is now on my “Bucket List” to make. I usually make all sorts of banana muffins with different additions. I will now call them “Rotten Banana Surprise Muffins”.
Memories:
I think my son was worried that I would get emotional with the remembrance birthday, but I was determined not to cry as I really wanted to just remember my mom and tell the stories about her.
Our children actually do not remember her as they were too young when she died.
One question I asked my son was, don’t you remember when we visited her and how grandma would walk you to the library? I believe this is where he started his love of books and writing. I also encouraged books as we homeschooled.
Back then it wasn’t the “In” thing to do like it was sort of pushed on so many parents with Covid-19. My method was to place books on his bed that I wanted him to read, and sure enough he took the bait.
I also had the family photo albums to show my son how much grandma was involved in our lives.
During the remembrance I spoke about is how my mom was my best friend. We would talk long distance and of course back then it wasn’t by cell phone, but by landline. We would talk probably once every two weeks and more when she was sick with cancer.
One of the last conversations I had with my mom was how it pained me that I couldn’t be with her. She, as always, was consoling me.
To this day, if I could do it all over again, I would have gone to be with my mom during her final days.
When my family called to let me know it wasn’t long, we were too late as she was gone by the time we got there.
Wrap-up:
Recently it saddened me to go to an estate sale to see an old Bible from the 1880’s that had birth and death inscriptions being sold for a couple of dollars. I would be so ashamed if my family did that to our family heirlooms.
So, our simple first birthday remembrance was a success and it has been decided that we will do more.
I believe that by doing the remembrances, our children and grandchildren will take pride in their heritage and learn to cherish the things that were left behind by our loved ones.
It is sort of like putting the book on the bed.
Will they take the bait? Time will tell.
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