3 posts tagged “2006”
Moms’ cancer. Chemotherapy, radiation. Hair loss and humor. Airports. Tears. Ripley. 938 miles. Walking my brother home from school. Love stronger than I imagined.
What are you thankful for?
I don't have a short, upbeat answer for this one. Instead, by way of explanation, I give you a timeline of Thanksgiving memories:
- 1995-earlier
I don't have very strong memories of the holiday growing up, except for one holiday spent in Ohio where my very-briefly-step-grandparents took their turkey apart and fried it. That I was horrified by this makes me believe my family had some holiday traditions for me to hold dear, but they were pretty generic ones at that: oven-roasted turkeys, green bean casserole, cranberries, potatoes. - 1996-1999
While in college, Thanksgiving became a stressful time of exams and being incorporated into generous friends' traditions. I never had enough money to fly home for the short holiday, so I was always bumming rides and finding seats at a wide selection of Thanksgiving feasts. These years taught me that some people profane sweet potatoes with marshmallows, introduced me to pumpkin bread and gave me the decadent Indian feast during my year abroad in the UK. - 2000-2004
The first time I went home with the man who would eventually be my husband, it probably started out feeling like a rehash of my college years: another family, another table, another set of Thanksgiving traditions to learn. Very quickly, however, I was incorporated into those traditions and began to think of them as my own. It wasn't about the food; it was about the stories and memories we shared about the food. Unlike Christmas, it wasn't the frenzy of gifts and associated anxieties; it was just about being a family and having the blessing of being together. - 2005
Last year, my husband and I opted to forgo the log-cabin Thanksgiving described above and visit my mother and brother in Florida. At this point, it had been ten years since I'd shared a Thanksgiving meal with her, and we wanted to do something different. She was all a-twitter, procured a free-range organic turkey for her crazy daughter and replaced her disfunctional stove for her culinary son-in-law. We had a wonderful time together and a great meal. I remember my mother dropping us off at the airport after the weekend and tears rolling down my cheeks as I expressed my appreciation to my husband for making that holiday happen. At the time, this seemed melodramatic, and I didn't understand why I was so emotional. Two weeks later, my mother would be given a terminal cancer diagnosis and our lives would be changed unimagineably. Of course, I couldn't have known that while I was making an emotional scene in the airport, but looking back it makes that moment much more poignant. - 2006
My husband and I now live in Florida with my mother and brother, and she finished her second course of chemotherapy the day before Thanksgiving. It's not that I'm ungrateful this year, it's just that everything I can think of to be grateful for has a bittersweet edge to it. I am grateful for this time to be here with my mother and brother, but I know my husband is very homesick this holiday season. I am terribly grateful that my mother-in-law seems to have won her battle against breast cancer (she was diagnosed in the spring of this year), but I also know I will never share that victory with my mother. I am grateful for my own health and that of my husband, but I know that as caregivers we're putting ourselves second, third and sometimes fourth and letting things slide that deserve attention. Again and again, I'm learning that you can be grateful and heartbroken at the same time.
Show us what a bad hair day looks like.
Submitted by Cindercone.
Thanksgiving morning, as I was getting dressed and doing my hair, I got frustrated with how grown out my hair was...my bangs were too long, the hair on the back of my neck was starting to approximate a mullet. I was very GRRR. As I was pondering jumping in the shower to wash out the stuff I had just put into my hair to style it, my two cats came rambling through, knocking over a case as they chased each other. A case containing an electric hair razor. My course seemed clear, and now I am assured no bad hair days for at least three months!
