our destination

In Him

we live,

and move and have our being..."

                                                Acts17:28

We went away for a long weekend.
A beautiful fall weekend...
We come home to cold...
It is cold, wet and dark this morning, the foretaste of months to come...

My husband and I even both said to each other..."we need those SNUGGLIES"?!?!

[for Christmas]

But the weekend was glorious.
An invitaion by our working girl daughter to join her on her first paid vacation!
She choose to visit family....with her parents?!?!
[She and I had a longer extension in New York added after the dad had to go back for work...]

Our adventures together began Friday evening in New Jersey with Joan and John and way too much delicious take out Chinese food.

Saturday we trekked up to Connecticut and spent a beautiful autumn day in New England, happening upon a street fair... farmer's market

On our way to "our destination"...

Sunday after mass we said good-bye to the dad and boarded mass transit for a rainy afternoon bus ride into NYC from the most lovely suburban town I have ever visited....

We made our way from the bus station uptown to Amy and Vince's under our pink umbrellas without getting lost once.

They hailed a bright yellow 'cash cab' and took us to brunch at 'Popovers'...

When we re-emerged onto the city streets the rain had gone and we enjoyed a perfectly clear fall Sunday in the city.

Somehow we stumbled upon a NYC street fair, down Columbus, pass the natural history museum?!

cupcakes and coffee at dinner time at
 'Magnolia Bakery'



after a day of walking and looking and sharing dreams

Much later in the evening we ordered dinner from the comfort of their new leather sofa and drank wine and ate lasagna pizza talking about Scotland  and dance long into the night....

but this was truly 'our destination'...
to get our hands on this 97 year old woman!
my husband's great aunt... his grandmother's neice

Aunt Evelyn..........ahhhhhhhhhh.......mmmmmmm

She moved from her home of 50 some years 5 years ago, to another city, closer to one of her daughters  and their families,  but so much further away from us, and we have not seen her since.

What a blessing it was to finally visit, to see her, to touch her.

And then to the surprise of us all, to hear her 'prophecies', she spoke things we actually had to ask her... "how do you know that?!?"

and even more than that to have her eyes look so deeply into our lives with such all knowing, and to hear her 'wordless utterances'...

{AND they danced... on the way home he skid...on the wet turnpike... but he's okay... and he saw a shooting star as he pulled into our drive-way}

She is still so much herself, directing what she wants, getting what she needs.

She wanted pictures of our daughter's eyes, very specific... "just her eyes"... beautiful

Somehow that direction, plus the way she looked at each of us individually, knowingly, with her eyes seemed to be her way of telling us... "I see"... and I want you to know I see, and I want you to know I see everytime you do something as common as looking at your beautiful daughter.

a long long time ago two people fell in love and married


her parents,
Sadie  ['Mercedis'] and Morris, my husband's grandmother's brother 

her scent...the same as my mom?!?

just like her

I do not have the words to tell what all her visit meant to us

every thing that happened since being with her is influenced by our time with her..

our time in the city

talking about dreams and purpose and living and where, how and why

to be with someone of sound mind and frail body of 97 years is an amazing experience

to know and feel her love

"don't go"

"stay"

to feel her spirit

her faith

to love her

and my life a little more, because she does

to appreciate even more the gift every moment is

and to somehow keep all those moments in perspective

what is essential

what remains

paper weddings and caterpillars

oysters and sea horses

gummy bears

and letting go of chairs