Yesterday, February 4th would have been my Grandma Honey’s 117th birthday. It’s difficult to imagine her at that age. She passed from this world into the next 30 years ago. She was a very important woman in my life, and taught me so much. Even now, I miss her like crazy!
Here she is, Mary Frances Daniell the day she married my Papa, Frederick Carl Prussman.
This is a picture of me, walking with my first wirehaired dackel, Shubi, and my friend, Otto in the forest near Otto’s home in Bavaria. He was such a wonderful man and I enjoyed the years that I knew him. He was a close friend of Jack’s and I met him shortly after we married. I was amazed at how much he knew, how many languages he spoke and yet, he made everyone he knew feel special.
He’s been gone a while now, having died from cancer, but I think of him often with love and admiration.
Sunday I went to a Memorial Service for the brother of a friend of mine. I did not know him well, but I am so fond of his sister and I simply ached for her.
His mother was there, and the expression on her face told me that she is in shock and not feeling too much, other than overwhelming grief. I ached for her too.
I sat trying to talk to people and not being very successful. It brought it all back to me, losing Katie, losing my brother to cancer, and all the emotions that go along.
It made me wish I could talk to my Mom and she is gone too.
I sort of feel that I am in a transition time. Going from being the grown child, to now being an elder member of our family.
But to everything…there is a season.
It’s been a year since our Mom passed. Every day I am thankful that she is no longer in pain.
Mom just loved all her great-grandchildren.
More than anything I am grateful for her parting gift to me.
You see, Mom and I are a lot alike. We both have wicked tempers and during my teen years we crossed swords more than once.
I often felt very much unloved. She was so much closer to my sister than she was to me. I was a mere accident. Or so I thought.
Then at her Memorial Service one of her friends (and I use that term losely!) said “When she told me that she was pregnant with you, I told her to get rid of it!” she hissed. “But she said no! She wanted you!”
All my life I wondered and suddenly here was my gift! Mom really did want me and she really did love me!
Mom’s last birthday June 28th 2013
I’m grateful that we knew she was dying. It gave us a chance to talk about what life would be like after her. We asked her how we would know she was with us. I thought she would say something like roses, beautiful roses. But no. She said she would be the beautiful butterfly that would fly around us.
I’ve missed her so much more that I thought I would. So many times I want to pick up the phone and call her, just to hear her voice.
Miss you so much Mom!
My cousin Larry met the woman of his dreams and on Satursday they were married at The Cathedral of the Pines, in Ringe, New Hampshire. A totally beautiful place for a wedding provided the weather cooperated, and it did!
It was a perfect day for a perfect wedding. My cousin, Janet and her husband Dave, my sister Melodie and her husband, Ron and I, all witnessed the big day for our youngest baby brother/cousin!
Welcome Cindy! You have married into a truly wild and crazy family!
Me and my family! Love you all!!
Today is my sister, Melodie’s Sixtyfirst Birthday. She’s always been a very important person in my life, as well as my dearest sister!
It’s been both a tough and joyous year for her, with the loss of our mother, but she also has the greatest joy of watching her twin grandsons, Nolan and Gabriel grow, as well as her much loved Grandchildren, Abby, Taft and Luke.
Many people will never realize just how loved they are by Melodie. When she is in your life, you have a devoted family member or friend, who will do anything, and expect nothing more than a smile in return. My sister is a real gem!
Happy Birthday, Melodie!!! from Dackel Princess Maribeth on Vimeo.
I wish for you a Happy Birthday, today, Mel and a wonderful year
When I was growing up in Falmouth, Massachusetts, my Dad had two jobs. In the winter he was a music teacher, and in the summer he was a “Summer Cop”. He started that by directing traffic on Main Street, but as he aged and got a little bit of seniority he moved inside to the desk.
It was a great job for him as he could play the organ for weddings during the day and then answer the police phones and dispatch cruisers at night.
One of the things I enjoyed was delivering Dad’s dinner to the Police Station. Mom would cook our dinner and we’d eat. Then she would put a hot dinner on a foil plate, wrap it in tin foil and we would take it to him at the station. Dad was always happy to see us, even if things were crazy, and they tended to be in the summer.
One thing I knew very quickly was to stay out of trouble because everyone knew Jim’s kids, and due to his connections with the police, he would be the first to know!
One day my parents got a call. Did they know where their three children were? Well, they knew we had gone up town, but in a beach resort town, they weren’t exactly sure.
It turns out the three of us had rented a little buggy where two people peddle it and a small person (me) could fit in the middle.
That day we drove all over Falmouth, down by the beaches and even down Main Street! What a time we had! My sister probably has more memories of that day, as I was very small. (5 years younger than her and 7 years younger than our brother, Dickie)
They grew into their teen years and more often then not didn’t appreciate having a kid sister around. But oh, how I longed to be with them, like the old days.
Time goes quickly, you know. Before we knew it, they were all grown up and as a family, we faced my brother’s early death to cancer.
Makes me happy that at least I had some of those early years to enjoy.
To My Friends
If you should die
before me, ask if you
could bring a friend.
– Stone Temple Pilots-
If you live to be a hundred,
I want to live to be
a hundred minus one day,
so I never have to live
without you.
– Winnie the Pooh-
True friendship is
like sound health;
the value of it is
seldom known
until it is lost.
– Charles Caleb Colton-
A real friend
is one who walks in
when the rest
of the world walks out.
Don’t
walk in front of me,
I may not follow.
Don’t walk behind me,
I may not lead.
Walk beside me and
be my friend.
– Albert Camus-
Strangers are
just friends waiting to
happen.
Friends are the Bacon
Bits in the Salad
Bowl of Life.Friendship is one mind
in two bodies.
– Mencius-
Friends are God’s way of taking care of us.
I’ll lean on you and
you lean on me and
we’ll be okay
– Dave Matthews-
If all my friends were
to jump off a bridge,
I wouldn’t jump with them,
I’d be at the bottom to
catch them.
Everyone hears
what you say.
Friends listen to
what you say.
Best friends
listen to what you don’t
say.
We all take different
paths in life,
but no matter where we go,
we take a little of each
other everywhere ..;
– Tim McGraw-
My father always used
to say that when you die,
if you’ve got five real friends,
then you’ve had a great life.;
– Lee Iacocca-
Hold a true friend with both your hands.;
– Nigerian Proverb-
A friend is someone who knows
the song in your heart
and can sing it back to you
when you have forgotten
the words.;
– Unknown-
Today my Mom would have turned 85 years old. Instead, my sister and I are mourning her loss, as she left us last August.
Her last days were brutal. Cancer is like that. You suffer and suffer and suffer to the point, where you see your loved one released into the next world and you thank God their battle is over.
So it was with Mom.
She was born Rosamond Ruth Prussman, to parents Frederick and Mary. She had a much loved older brother Robert and a cousin George, who grew up like a brother to her. In fact, until the day they passed, they really adored each other.
Mom’s brother, Robert and his wife Cynthia.
Aunt Betty, Larry, Janet and Uncle George.
She met my Dad when she was 13 and was dancing and my Dad played the piano. I asked Dad once what made him look twice at Mom and he said “It was a bright red sweater that she had! She looked so beautiful in it! I was hooked!”
A collage of their life together.
They married early on, and Dad finished getting his teaching degree. They moved to Monument Beach, Massachusetts ,
and lived in a little white cottage in the Burton-wood section, where my brother, Richard and my sister Melodie were born.
They moved to Falmouth, Massachusetts and shortly after, Mom had me. During my teenage years we fought like cats and dogs. Mom and I said some very cruel things to each other, including the fact that she wished I’d never been born.
But flash forward to Mom’s funeral. Her childhood, lifelong friend came over to me and told me that when Mom told her she was pregnant with me, she admonished her to “get rid of it!” But Mom didn’t.
That’s when it hit me. Sometimes we say things we really don’t mean. Because obviously, Mom wanted me very much, because here I am!
Thanks Mom!
My parent’s stayed married for well over 60 years.
Mom was with him until the end. She never remarried. I think in her mind and her heart she was always Jimmie’s girl!
Her last days were spent, not in fear of dying, no, Mom knew Christ and she knew she would see Dad again. She just worried about Mel and me.
Me, Mel & Janet with Mom.
The last time we were together before Mom was diagnosed with Liver Cancer. It was at the wedding of my neice Jin and her husband, Ian. Mom was so happy. I almost didn’t go because of my facial surgery, but I am so glad I did now.
The last time I saw her, we sat there, with Janet and the four of us were talking quietly. I asked Mom how we would know if she was with us. She smiled and said “You will see butterflies, and that will be me.”
And you know what? We see beautiful butterflies all the time. And we smile!
Happy Birthday, Mom!
Happy Birthday to my cousin and best friend, Janet. I have known her all of my life, shared all the fun and angst of growing up, and as we crossed into our fifties, we have become closer and closer.
Please know, you have all of my love and will forever!
Besties all our lives!
Love you!!!