No pictures, just a morning full of rain. It was a weak rain, like a flick. I felt like Utah needed a punch.
It's strange, I think about my Grandparents a lot. Since I've been a mom, especially. My previous life was a trough, or a wave, and now I see it in more of a circle. I just chisel my days out one by one and my ancestors are like the choir. I can feel them around me all the time. My great grandma Wilkenloh had a house right on the cliff above the ocean. She had an old organ and my sisters and I would sit on the bench and play the organ and look straight out the huge window, through the trees, and gaze at the Pacific. When my mom was a teenager she went to live with Grandma Wilkenloh. A loving Grandmother and her beautiful, black-haired Granddaughter Mary would take walks together, take care of the horses, and watch the sunset over the ocean. My mother loved her. The first thing I would do when I got to Grandma Wilkenloh's house was run to her feet, sit down and beg her to braid my hair. The skin on her fingers was soft and wrinkly, and the rhythm of her voice was so gentle. Her hands would braid my hair so slowly I would want to go to sleep, but I stayed awake hoping she would keep braiding over and over.
I find I cannot make a sandwich or wash a salad bowl without thinking of my mother or my Grandma Jeannie, picturing them doing the same things.
I am lucky to be lead and preceded by a legacy of amazing women. Sometimes I wonder who I'm going to be or how I'm going to turn out and I realize it's already happening...
4 comments:
A beautiful blog you posted Sarah. I read your blogs religously and find a connection between your life and mine. The similarities are so often i find myself trying to decifer wich commection we are having. Mother to Mother. Woman to Woman or the fact that are Mothers are sisters and the same Great Grandmother we both adore and miss some how looks down at us. Our memories of Grandma Wilkenloh are different but i know the feelings we have towards her are the same. I too think about her in my daily tasks and wonder what she would think of my family now. Would she like Matt? Would she adore Deserae? I was so longing for Deserae and her to meet but she came 2 weeks too late. Or maybe we lost Grandma 2 weeks to early. Any way keep writing. I enjoy them so much. Love you ....Annie
Beautiful post. I remember reading a biography of my great-grandmother and thinking, "What an amazing woman, I wish I could be like that." Then I thought of how I was her child and was so touched to realize that she is in me. That I stood a chance of being like her because--if, if, and of course, if.
your words touch my heart..d
I'm a Wilkenloh too - I was doing a search for something on my maiden name, and ran across your blog. It's such an unusual name, we must be related somehow, but I can't figure out how? Please, send me an email.
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