Saturday, July 6, 2013

Threads of Life


7 July 2013, submission of "8" for wewriwa

I have spent all day weeding in my raspberry patch. As I weeded, I formulated my “8” in my mind. I am yet writing of my Grandmother Minna’s, life.

“One of the garden weeds produced a vine, which attached itself to the ground every couple of inches as well as seeded itself from flowers.  Do we have such a tenacious hold on life? My grandmother, Minna, had seven children, one of which, Edna, died at age two. My aunt, Esther, two years older than Edna, remembered that  she had asked her mother if she could have the bouquet of violets that were on top of Edna’s coffin after Edna was buried, "because Edna did not need them any more". Her mother, Minna, refused to let Esther have them. After the death of Aunt Esther, last of the living children, I found a small box,  among my grandmother’s possessions, with an artificial bouquet of violets in it, saved all of her life. Seven children, one death, but all were precious to a mother and none forgotten. I knew at once the source of this nosegay of violets.”

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20 comments:

  1. Oh, that is beautifully poignant. And I think we do have an equally tenacious hold on life - I love the allegory you draw with this.

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  2. She never forgot little Edna. How wonderful to find the violets so many years later. This is such a fascinating story, Carol. Looking forward to the next excerpt.

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    1. Debbie, You and I both saw this the same way. There were not many of her possessions left. This was one of very few.

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  3. Beautiful writing! So much emotional depth with only eight sentences.

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  4. Awwww, so genuinely touching. What a wonderful, poignant detail. Excellent snippet.

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  5. What a touching snippet! I love how you bring in the violets, and that you wrote it while weeding your raspberry patch... it shows a lot about you, as the author... I love it!

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    1. I was shocked when I opened the box and saw the small nosegay of violets. It brought tears to my eyes. Anyone else opening it would have thought, "This is junk. Why is it here?" But the family was very poor, it makes sense that they could not afford fresh flowers.

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  6. Wow. Beautiful. Very powerful and thanks for sharing!

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  7. Very touching snippet. I'm still very much enjoying your story and look forward to reading what you post.
    History Sleuth's Milk Carton Murders

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    1. And I enjoy yours. Thank you so much for reading.

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  8. Carol, this is beautiful... such a bittersweet thing, the little violet nosegay. Your writing continues to get better and better! :-)

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    1. Thank you for encouraging me and getting me started. I'm finding that I feel closer and closer to my family as I write.

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  9. This was so beautiful, how you were able to catch your grand mother's feelings. :)

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    1. Linda, when I first found the nosegay I thought, "Oh this must be from Edna's death. But the "real" meaning of it did not hit me until I wrote this. It was just a fact before. Now it became my grandmother's heart.

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