Friday, July 20, 2007

"Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes."

- Henry David Thoreau

After a lovely week together, my aunt and uncle are flying back to Michigan tomorrow morning. It will be an early start, so I'm off to get a few hours of shut-eye before I drive them out to the airport.

We had a big family dinner at my sister's, they took in the jazz festival and went to see the Tall Ships. The brothers went fishing in the Atlantic while the wives went shopping, then Mom had a smaller dinner here so Gram could spend time with them among less commotion. Ten of us went to dinner last night so we could listen to my local uncle play jazz with a regular gig he's got in Halifax with the Chalmers Doane quartet. Tonight they're sleeping over at our place and we had a great visit.

In the hilarious category: my uncles and my aunt went to visit Dad's grave this afternoon. Keep in mind that as Dad's urn was interred and we were all at the graveside, a powerful wind whipped over us from Bedford Basin the whole time, as though Dad were saying goodbye through the elements. Well, this afternoon, no sooner had my uncle said, "Well Norm, we've come to say goodbye," when a crack of lightening and a clap of thunder answered him. I guess my dad likes a dramatic gesture!

5 comments:

Toni said...

Sounds like a nice time had. I had a similar experience at my grandfather's grave when I was about 12 or 13. It had been just slightly breezy that day. As I said, "Love you, Pap," and turned to walk away, a huge gust passed at that moment and ripped my "lucky fishing hat" right off my head (mind you, Pap had been a major angler in his day).
Blessings,
~Toni~

Unknown said...

Glad you all had a nice visit. The weather was ferocious yesterday, wasn't it?

Unknown said...

It's amazing how things like that happen. You're dad has great presence. :)

I'm glad you had a great week.

Anonymous said...

Quite a wweek!

Nice to know your dad still has a way to keep in touch!

Amy Ruttan said...

Glad you had a nice visit.

Things like that make you feel all warm inside, even though a loved one is gone, they never are truly.

When I just had my daughter I was sad one day that my Nanny didn't live to see me get married or have babies. She died when I was 13. I was looking at my daughter and thinking "What would Nanny think of her."

Clear as a bell I heard "She's beautiful darlin'"

I hadn't heard my Nanny's voice in over 15 years at that point.

It was so wonderful, and made me feel so happy. Now, I'm starting to cry! :)