Bounty 04/08/00

My life bursts with bounty.  The azalea, weeping cherry, red bud, pear tree, forsythia and Gerry & Linda's tulip magnolia are all blooming like mad.  Look out the front or look out the back and all you will see is beauty.

As you know, bounty arrived on our doorstep on Thursday in the form of the bunnies Brenda brought to grace the tree.   Another wondrous surprise arrived on Friday - Elsa Asplundh Acton made me an exquisite bee's wax angel.  Oh, she is so beautiful.  I am honored to have a figurine by Gareth's Schatzi, a gifted sculptor.

I just cannot get over all the beauty - inside and out - that surrounds me.  I bless the Lord for all the bounty He has given and for the eyes to see and for the heart to love.

Blessings on you all - Mum

Happy Birthday, Mim!

Our first daughter was born 56 years ago today.  We named her Joann K *, but the nurse called her "little Missy" whenever she brought her to me and that name stuck.  Over the years, it went from Missy to Mimmy to Mim.

Mim is and always has been remarkable.  When I think about her manyaccomplishments over the years, since she was very young, I wonder at her talents, focus and dedication to whatever cause she holds dear. 

In addition to coaching a boy’s football team – Mim’s Monsters – in her early teens, she started a club for the Alden Road kids.  Mim took it very seriously, putting in many hours organizing for the weekly meetings.  She really put members of the Explorer’s Club through their paces, with all sorts of projects and activities.  For many years, she even put on a 3-night camp in our backyard every summer (in spite of living right next door from the campers’ home or or down the road, she had the hard & fast rule that anyone who went home during camp were out; gave it the feel of real “away” camp).   

In her twenties, Mim attended an off-Broadway theater workshop and lived in Greenwich Village for a summer.  She attended college at the University of Houston and at the remarkable Berry College in Rome, Georgia. 

In her thirties, she traveled for over a month to the Hawaiian Islands and spent 6 weeks in Ireland.  She started work on a liberal arts degree from New York University, attending a special evening class, commuting from Bryn Athyn to New York 3 times a week the first year, twice a week the second, and as needed for the last, and she graduated in 1981.  She was a never-to-be-forgotten housemother to 1st grade boys (mostly black children from single parent families) at Girard College, taking them up to Penny's farm in Kempton for a weekend in the country, bringing them out to Bryn Athyn for special events, and doing all sorts of  amazingly creative projects with them throughout the year. 

In her forties, she started working on her Masters in Social Work at Rutgers University in north central New Jersey. She has made north central NJ her home, living a a block from the shore and about 1 1/2 hours from BA.

Today, Mim has a private practice working with autistic children.  She was recognized a few years ago by the state legislature of New Jersey for her volunteer work with the organization for autistic support, receiving a official proclamation passed by the state legislature - very impressive, with fancy lettering and a big impressive seal.

That's my "bippith" (or "princess"  as her Dad always called her).  There never was and there never will be anyone like Mim.  I am proud that she is my daughter.  May her wonders never cease.    

Love to one & all - Mim's Mom

*  I balked at Pete's request that we call our first girl after me; we compromised,  giving her just the initial & letting her decide for herself.  It took until just before she received her MSL to finally pick one - Kiernan.

30 years ago at this time...

... I was seated in the front pew at the cathedral, having watched three of my children process up the aisle, with our newest family member.  A very happy anniversary to Mike & Kerry, who were married on April 4, 1970.

It seems not that long ago that Mike told us about a girl he had met on the ship he took from Australia to America, that he was more than casually interested - he was engaged.  I thought it could be just a shipboard romance - intense but short lived.  Now, here we are, 30 years later.

Mike was coming back to the USA after months of rambling Australia's sunny shores.  Kerry was headed to Banff on the first leg of what she intended to be an around-the-world trip;  because she was from a Commonwealth nation, she could get nursing positions in other Commonwealth countries without going through a lot of red tape.  

She got as far as the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

As it turned out, the wedding turned into a bit of a thriller.   Kerry came down to spend Christmas 1969 with us without a hitch, but when she headed due south for the wedding, she was turned back at the border for some ridiculous red tape reason.  We pulled every string we could down here and she finally made it through.

Then there was the fashion drama on The Day, when Mike opened up the shirt he'd had pressed at the cleaners - it was a pale blue shirt, not his dress shirt ...and time was marching onward.  It was late afternoon and most of the family was at Diane Coffin's, "Aunt Di" having put out an early supper spread for us. Mim had the bright idea of calling Lach Pitcairn, who saved all of his dress clothes - he might have something from his long, ultra-lean days.  Sure enough, he did.

Image getting married a world away from your family & friends.  When Kimberly and Scott married this past January, her brothers were groomsmen and her parents and her grandmother were in attendance.   

Imagine - none of Kerry's friends or relatives were able to attend.   

Bryn Athyn's Australian contingent closed ranks around her and Gay Pendleton was delighted to take on the role of surrogate Mom, but it is not the same.  

Talking to her mother on the phone from the party at our house after the church reception, I mentioned to Jean how difficult it must be, so far away.  She answered that she could not have come to the wedding and then parted again from her Kerry.  My heart went out to her and to Kerry.

That was a bittersweet moment in an otherwise wonderful wonderful day.  I hope all my friends will join me in sending Mike & Kerry best wishes on this very special day.

Love to you all, but especially Mike & Kerry.  May there be a blessing  - MUM

As a man thinketh...

This posting is dear to my heart - I think it is the first of several Mom wrote re: Whitney  & Chad's 04/15/00 wedding.  deev   04/01/14

...can be very different from how a woman thinketh.  Consider my son

Peter.

Peter called up today to make an incredible offer to the Lockhart

womenfolk:  he would happily treat us to a complete wedding outfit – from shoes and stockings to coat and hat, if we wished - for his daughter, Whitney's, BIG DAY.

Incredible generosity.  Just one problem.  The wedding is two weeks from away.  

Ladies, how many of you would be two weeks away from an important wedding and not already know hat you are wearing and what you are wearing with what you are wearing?  (Men, can you follow?)

If I were to take Peter up on his generous offer, it would mean having to do some intensive shopping over the next twelve days.  Men can go into their equivalent of Jules Pilch Menswear and can pick out a top quality suit, shoes, socks, briefs, T-shirts, ties. 

This woman approaches putting together an outfit differently.   

Due to a mastectomy and my general physical decreptitude at this point, my foundation garments come from a specialty store in Jenkintown.   

My orthopedic dress shoes have to be special ordered from Faherty's and take closer to 2 months than 2 weeks to arrive.   

If I was planning on wearing a dress other than what already hangs in my closet, it would probably be made to order, which means finding the pattern, fabric and seamstress with enough time to get it done in less than two weeks.

As it is, the outfits I will wear to the rehearsal dinner, the wedding and the post-wedding day brunch wait patiently in my closet for me to pack up for our short jaunt to the Great Valley (Fraser, PA) Sheraton.  I like them and they suit me.  

Elsa has had her outfit pressed and ready to go since December, with her jewelry in a velvet pouch pinned to the dress. 

Yes, I will wear my somewhat battered clodhoppers, with knee highs instead  of stockings.   

Yes, I may look more like Mammy Yokum than Hope Montgomery Scott,  since health has left my dentures all catty-whompus so they do not fit any more and there is no guarantee my new ones will be done in time.  (they were – elm)   

But with a bride as radiant as  Whitney, a groom as happy as Chad, and a dad as proud of Peter, who is going to notice anyway?

Peter's thoughtfulness about my wardrobe and his undiminished belief in the wonders his Mom can pull off leaves me with a smiling face and heart.

I hope today is as beautiful wherever you are as this Pennsylvania spring day is here.  Elsa is taking me to lunch at our beloved Pat's Colonial Kitchen, my first full-scale social outing (not counting a couple March trips to B&N) in months.  The trees along Newtown's State Street should be in full flower. I am all a-twitter in anticipation.

Love to all - The Grandmother of the Bride