one year - and 8 since she left - today, momma has been gone 8 years - it has been one year since i wrote here and so much has happened - i have tried to write and something always seemed to get in the way and then when i thought again, recently, i thought i would wait and mark the day as a new beginning. so much water under the bridge - a year - 365 days - where to begin - sister has spent the last year in and out of hospitals - mostly in - long periods - there were times we thought and feared we would lose her and she too would join momma & daddy and bubba - too many time to want to remember - she came home this week - and to celebrate the homecoming we are having a family thanksgiving meal - something she missed and desired - baby brother and his wife divorced - rod and i took better paying jobs in houston - it has been hard to leave family - very hard - it has been as hard to give up freedom with a less stressful job - i wonder if the money is worth the sense of lost creativity - i re-connected with several old friends - one i had longed and searched for -
when i was growing up we used to mark and celebrate special days in a variety of ways - when it was one of our birthdays, daddy made sure everyone got a gift - some little small something - later in life, we seemed to mark the occasion by eating - always a big meal - always a big gathering - inviting everyone - it just kind of carried over into our adult lives - so, today and tomorrow, we mark several occasions - we rejoice with joyous hearts the homecoming of sister - our eldest sibling who has been 'through the ringer' this year - we commemorate the memory of our dear mother and we will celebrate the birth of our dear aunt, whose birthday follows the day our mother died.