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Thursday, August 27, 2015

WHILE I WAS AWAY

Since I have had Serius Radio, I mostly listen to
talk radio. Because I am soon going to get rid of it,
I've been listening more to FM radio.
I have forgotten what kind of music I like,
I am trying to find my music interest again.
So, a few days ago, I put it on Country and as I drive,
I am just thinking of my growing family,
how proud I am that gypsy baby is back in school,
determined to get this college degree behind her.
That her love, Kayshara, shara, hopefully soon will
become her wifey.
I thought about Kd as that day she was not feeling well,
and how lucky I am that BB found her and how lucky
those grand girls are to have these two as their parents.
I was thinking of how much their Daddy does for them,
even giggled to myself thinking of Ronnie ever taking
our kiddo's by himself to the Aquarium as Baby boy had
recently done because Kd was sick.
Almost like, on key, this song comes on the radio,
and as I listen to the words, I think, how ironic,
its like its my Baby Boy's life as he has been
home for almost 6 weeks because of Caboose 
being born and soon to return to work.
I think of how just days before I joke with him
that he is going to be so ready to go back to work
and he said, 
"I am never ready to leave my girls and go back to work"
I listen to these words:
By the time I made it home
You were already in bed
Chubby cheek pressed to the pillow
By a bed time book you read
And I noticed that you looked older
Than you did yesterday
You've been growing up
While I was away
You made a pile of leaves in the front yard
I guess it's already fall
By the look of them pictures your momma took
The two of you had a ball
And it made me glad, but a little sad
To see those games you played
I missed a lot of smiles
While I was away
For every dollar I earn there's a lesson you learn without me there
And every day I'm on the go I'm prayin' that you know that your daddy cares
'Cause the hardest part about workin' hard ain't the bills I gotta pay
It's you growin' up while I was away
And I found your note in the kitchen
It's a real work of art
A stickman holding your stick hand with "Daddy" written in a heart
And it got me good 'cause I understood just what you meant to say
You've been missing me too
While I Was Away
And for every dollar I earn there's a lesson you learn without me there
For every day I'm on the go I'm prayin' that you know your daddy cares
'Cause the hardest part about workin' hard ain't the bills I gotta pay
It's you growin' up while I was away
No the hardest part about working hard ain't the bills I gotta pay
It's everything that I missed
While I was away

Pat Green sings this bittersweet song,
and it makes me think of those things we take for
granted, don't think of often enough.
That while one parent is rearing the children,
the other is working hard to make the finances for
their family. Things are missed.
I am glad that Baby boy has a job like his Dad did,
he may be gone for half the month, but when
he is home the other half he is home,
home 24/7 able to see and have a hands on
gift that parenting gives you.
Yet, he still misses things, and this song,
(thanks Pat Green)
makes me realize we all will miss some things.

Saturday, August 22, 2015

DUET TRIBUTE

I have tried to write this blog for over a week.
I have had the family's permission for days
and still, I just can't seem to find the words,
the words to say what is in my heart when I think
of sweet Stephen and his family's loss.
Last night while saying my prayers I realize
it is because there are no words good enough
to explain this child, this family.
So today, I go on a limb and write.
I will not think I will just type and pray my words
will do justice to the one we all know and love
as STEPHEN DUET.
The loss of a young one is never easy.
It being one you watched grow up and
stayed close to he and his family make it harder.
I can only attribute it to being like when we 
lost our dear Robert at the age of 21 
to meningitis. MY heart hurt so much for 
both of these deaths, felt like I was burying my own child
and yet I know that for as hard as it was for me,
it was 20 times more painful for his parents, sister,
brother in law, more than a girlfriend, grandparents
and the slew of cousins and family who adored
Stephen. Out of their whole family who I lived
next to for 10 years as Stephen grew up,
I was the closest and remain close to his sister, Katie.
We call her Katie the neighbor in my family as
she helped us so much when Mom was at 
St. Joseph Manor. 
This girl, Katie, adored her little brother and
in texting with her this week she says
they are trying to begin to live their lives
without their Stephen but it is hard...
I think of his parents but mostly his Momma lately.
I just don't see anything natural in a parent burying
their child. Donna, his momma was so overprotective and
we all teased her on how Stephen was a Momma's boy.
I can't even begin to know how she feels.
Warren, their father, as usual, at the funeral
was saying things to comfort us all.
As he hugged me tightly as I spilled tears on
his lapel he says,
"Only thing I would do different had I known we would
loose him would have been to spend more time with him"
To those of us who knew the dynamics of this family,
that sentence woulds seem absurbed. 
Warren and Donna are those parents who do everything
with their children. It was nothing to watch Warren 
playing basketball with Stephen daily.
No father or mother I know did more for the 
betterment of their family.
I am so proud to call them friends.
Now to try and explain our Stephen.
When we moved to Lee Drive, 
he was a cute, shy, small 9 year old.
He talked very little and my gypsy baby took this
as a way to tease him to no end. She bribed a picture
of him from his sister and placed it on her wall 
and told him she kissed and looked at it daily
and was his girlfriend and one day they would marry.
this poor pre teen boy was driven crazy by my children
yet he just smiled. Can you imagine the year
he had to ride to EDW with gypsy and her
friends in the morning.
Hurricane Katrina really brought us closer as
they spent two nights with us in our living room
where we had a generator and an air conditioner.
It was such a wonderful time for Lee Drive.
That sounds crazy with all the tragedy Katrina brought with
it, but it also had some good to it. Our neighborhood
had no electricity for 10 days and most of us could
not go to work so we would cook and eat together,
and at night, the Duet's spent the night with us.
We talked and laughed so much until all of us
would finally fall asleep. The night the electricity came back on,
we were settling for the night, it was about 10 pm
when we saw the streetlight come on, we all went
out to celebrate but I know in some ways we were all
a little sad, our gatherings would end and it did,
but the closeness we shared did not end.
Katie and I started scrapping, crafting together,
we were close and remain that way.
What happened with Stephen over the last few years?
He went from the cute shy little blonde boy
to a man, a man with the best sense of humor
who adored his family as much as they all did him.
Through the last few years, with Katie and Brent
getting engaged then married, then pregnancy and
the birth of sweet Addie Mae, I saw lots of all of them
as well as Stephen. Such a handsome boy.
When their grandmother, Warren's mom passed away,
I was fortunate to meet sweet Camille, Stephen's girlfriend.
I was amazed, she was beautiful and there was no doubt
in my heart that these two were together till the end.
I just never believed the end would be so soon.
Each time, during the funeral when Father would say,
Stephen's girlfriend, I felt like standing and screaming,
"She was more than a girlfriend"
All of us knew Steve-O had found the love of his life.
Gypsy still teased him when she had the opportunity 
but it didn't bother him anymore, he loved it actually.
He was a Momma's boy and proud of it.
But he was not just a Momma's boy,
he was a Daddy's boy, a sisters boy,
a best friend to his brother in law, Brent and
the love of Camille's life.
Not to mention, his sweet Addie Mae,
who he is godfather to. During the eulogy,
a cousin, somehow, was able to get up there and
read tributes from Camille, Katie and his parents.
In each letter, they spoke of how much he loved
this baby of Katie and Brent.
Camille said it best when she shared how Stephen told
her he could not believe how something so little could
steal his heart and love and how he could
not wait until she was older to watch his favorite
movie, THE LION KING together.
Stephen had just finished college and belonged
to the same fraternity his bro in law was in, SAE.
Katie and Brent were very active as all their best friends
were in this group when they were in college so it was
a happy day for all of them when Stephen pledged into
the same Frat.
Katie will tell you, it is in this group that this child
grew into a man. Unlike most fraternities, SAE,
from the little I know of it, is not about partying so 
much as it is doing for others, paying it forward.
No one at Stephens funeral could not be touched
by this over 100 young men gathered in this church
to say goodbye to one of their own, a fallen brother.
Their motto was read during the eulogy from Katie's letter
with the stand out word being "gentlemen"
That they were. Each one of these young adults along
with their girlfriends, fiance's, wives, spoke to this grieving 
family. I am sure each one of them had a story to tell of
their Stephen. They filled the church of St. Genevieve to capacity
along with all of us others who loved him dearly.
You see this fraternity does not end when you graduate
from college, they are brothers forever.
It was the most inspiring thing I have ever witnessed at
a funeral. It gave me hope for the future.
I want to say a few words about my Katie the neighbor.
When I say she and I were close is an understatement.
Many years between us, I could have been her mother
but we are friends, bonded forever by the years we 
were neighbors and the long nights we scrapped together.
We scrapped and talked, a lot.
When we moved to Plaquemine, it is Katie who followed 
Ron and I to our new home to help us clean
and move. Since then she has spent many days with me,
she is an exceptional girl who always kept our
neighborhood up to date on what was going on.
She is a girl like no other.
On her wedding day, with all she had to do,
she was so saddened that her paternal grandmother,
who was over 90 and bedridden by this time would not
make her wedding that she went to the nursing home and
spent hours with her grandmother before starting her
day. I know of very few women such as this.
I watched my sweet Katie and the funeral of her brother,
hold herself together, strong like her Daddy and
I knew she was breaking inside. She was so close to her
little brother, overprotective of him just as her mother was.
I realized that day that she may be the picture of her
mother at that age, but she has the strength of 
her father as she comforted others on the worst day
of her life. I adore this child almost as my own.
Stephen is gone, ahead of his family to the place we 
all like to call Heaven. His godchild, our Addie Mae,
will never know him the way we all did but I have no
doubt that family will forever talk to her about
her godfather to the point that she will believe she
knew him well. I have heard there is no sense of
time in Heaven, so what seems like an eternity of loss
to us, to go on without our "Scooter Steve" as my kids
called him, he will not long for us as we for him.
He has gone ahead to make the way for his family.
It makes me want, more than ever to get back to 
the closeness I once had with my God.
I have been lax in my faith since my separation.
Stephen's death has me wanting that back,
and I will get it, because I want to be a part of this
childs eternity. So, even though this may not be enough,
may not be fitting enough for what the Duet's lost
that day Stephen went ahead, I hope they gain some
comfort from my words knowing they are so loved
not only by me, but many people as was seen in that
church that was standing room only.
Let me say, as hard as that day was for them, for all
of us, their pain has just begun as they try and
move on living a life minus one, the one
who kept them laughing. Our lives will be easier
to move on, so let us all remember them all in prayer
and thoughts. Send a card, speak of Stephen when you 
see them. Often we believe that it is easier for the families
if we not bring up their loved ones names but in 
reality it gives them comfort. I am sure they
do not want Stephen to be forgotten.
They have empty rooms in their homes where his 
prescence is still felt although he no longer is there.
Memories and momento's of him that will be 
found on a day just when they think they are 
a little better. Time does help some but just 
like the waves of tides, it will slow down and
they will feel like it is better then something will
come up, a birthday, a holiday or maybe just a card
he sent to one of them, and the waves will rush over
them once again bringing back their loss just as the
first day they left them. Pray and think of his
"more than a girlfriend" Camille as I just know
she and he talked of marriage often.
I know her plans were to marry and love this
young man eventually. She will eventually move on,
in time, but a piece of her heart will forever belong to
Stephen. I will end this with two thoughts,
remember these are the harder times for them all,
make it known to them that we have not forgotten 
their loss and their pain. Send a card, call them,
send them a meal. Last but definitely not least,
lets all gain comfort from the part of the eulogy read,
written by sweet Camille:
She spoke of how Stephen hated to see her sad, 
stressed or cry so in those times of need he would have her
say,
"I AM CAMILLE AND I AM STRONG"
He would have her say it over and over until it
sounded strong enough for him and until
she believed it to be true.
So I say to all of us who love Steve-o and his
family,
"....AND WE ARE STRONG"
As Katie the neighbor sent me in a text the other day,
We are all going to try and go back to work/school today
as Stephen would want it that way.
So should we all try and move on but pray not for
Stephen because there is no doubt where he is
but for all of us who love our
STEPHEN DUET.
Stephen and HIS Camille
 Katie the neighbor, my dear friend, at her engagement party.
The Duet family at Baby boy and Kd's wedding..
Stephen sitting with thumbs up, reminding us
all, we gunna be A-ok, in time...

Thursday, August 13, 2015

BABY BOY TURNS 30!

On August 11th my baby boy turned 30....
the blog is a little late as we lost a 
dear friend and it was hard to blog on his bday.
It is hard to look at this grown man,
with four beautiful girls, including KD here,
and remember the baby he was to me.
When I tell Bean that her daddy is my baby boy,
she just thinks that is nuts but loves
to hear stories of when he was little.
Sharing here, what a sweet baby boy he was.
He came to me at a time when life was not
so great, Ron and I were on a rocky road and
he was my life line. Funny that a baby could
be your life line but he was.
He was beautiful, natural tanned, blue eyes,
white blond hair and the best little personality 
to go with it. He was a Momma's boy.
Loved his Momma. 
His favorite thing to get at the store?
A composition and pencils.
That child would pass every toy aisle 
for the school supplies. He loved drawing.
Sometimes, Bean and JoJo remind me of
him so much, other times more like their Mother.
However, it is our sweet JoJo that brings back
the most memories of BB.
The minute her hands touch her blankie,
the same fingers that her Daddy sucked as a child,
pop in her very own mouth.
He called his blank wobble, she
calls hers Bae.
Sweet memories of a sweet son.
Now as an adult, I watch him with his three little babies
and I beam with pride, of what a great Daddy he
is, all he gives to his big family.
Happy birthday my baby boy,
what joy you have brought me through life
and now to bring me beautiful grand daughters
to love.
Always my baby no matter how old...







Tuesday, August 4, 2015

LET YOUR FAITH....


Today while net-surfing, I come across
this painting. It is not the painting that moves
me, although beautiful. It is the quote:
LET YOUR FAITH BE BIGGER THAN YOUR FEAR
Made me feel bold but also had me on the verge
of tears. I am settled now into the home I have 
always dreamed of. When I go to bed, laying my
head on one of the more treasured pieces I own,
my Mommy's pillow, I have had fears.
I have never been one to excessively worry.
When married, Ron did enough worrying for the 
both of us. Now, I feel myself sometimes fearful.
I fear the sale of the big home taking so long.
What if it never sells, what a relief that would
be for us all. As I struggle with this fear,
I realize, I have let fear overcome my faith.
MY faith tells me, This home will sell not
in my time, but in The Big Mans time.
I have forgotten that He will take care 
of me, it will sell in His time.
But God, you know, I may be one of your 
imperfect children, but I so am ready to sell that home.
When something starts having me loose sleep, well
it has to get fixed....
Come through for me Faith,
I am tired of fear!                    

Monday, August 3, 2015

TAKING IN THE NEW NEIGHBORHOOD

  There are lots of beautiful things here in 
the Garden District of Plaquemine.
Yesterday with the "cold front" (cough cough enter sarcasm here.)
        I took advantage of a bike ride.
I rode along a street that I had looked at a home to buy
and was privileged to run into Mr. Country.
Most in Plaquemine, know Mr. Country.
A young man of the age of 91 who
has wonderful stories to tell, was a POW,
never has had surgery and still takes care
of his home and yard.
On this day, I stop to admire his squirrels
who are tamed by this balance stick that holds
and ear of corn that has to be turned to get the corn
as it has a weight on the end.
No doubt Mr. Country makes these.
He comes out to speak with me as he likes
talking as much as I.
We have had a few encounters and each
was a learning experience for me.
On this day we discuss the squirrel feeders
he not only has on his trees but he makes to sell.
Of course, I order one for my one tree in my back yard.
A delightful man, speaks of how he builds these feeders
and how spoiled his squirrels are and how the feeders 
make these work for their                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
I wish I had gotten a video of how they actually work.
I could have stayed there all day watching them eat.

Then to add to the show, this little critter, lays down on the 
platform of the feeder and Mr. Country explains that this 
little squirrel is now full but not about to give
away his perch here on His feeder.
He sleeps across the bar and he
steals my heart.... Hoping my own feeder
by Mr. County will call to the squirrels at the cottage.
Sweet, squirrels, extra sweet man,
Mr. Country!

Saturday, August 1, 2015

BLESSED WITH ANOTHER MIRACLE

 Seems like just yesterday, we walked this same hall,
Baby boy, holding Bean on the way to visit her
baby sister, Tuts for the first time.
Now Bean walks on the side of her Daddy as he
holds his sweet Tuts...
 Tuts is a Mommy and Daddy girl, but more so a Mommy girl.
Her face here was for the fact that she wanted her Mommy.
 As a friend of mine stated on a Facebook post,
and the beginning of a blissful caos,
so real... and yet, that little baby,
our
JEMMA KATE,
WEIGHING 7 POUNDS 10 OUNCES,
has hit the jackpot with the family she has been blessed with!
 Two grandmothers, One MawMaw and one Mumsie,
always wanting to be there to pick up the slack.
So in love with all our little grand girls.
Never in my whole life, did I ever imagine I
would find myself so happy, so content, so peaceful
and so darn in love with three little girls who call me
Mumsie. Hope one day, Gypsy Baby and Kayshara, shara
can add to this gang of beauties.

 Pappy was there for the important day.
We may be separated, find ourselves both happier
in our new lives but there is one things we will
always agree on, we are proud and love the two children
we were blessed with together and the joy of
their own accomplishments will be shared by us both.
(Pappy can rarely take a picture with his eyes open)
 ... and here, our sweet and lovely, Jemma,
not even an hour old yet.
Such a calm baby, this is before her first bath.

 As they bathed her, Tuts, sitting on her Daddy's shoulders
was not sure what to make of a wet, naked baby.
The babies she knows are those that are in 
the doll form or in the cousins that go home with
another Mommy and Daddy at the end of a visit.
This one is hers, forever to be part of her life,
looks like she is not too sure here.
 
 But this big sis, Bean, oh she understands and is
already in love with her newest sister.
This child loves, adores her family.

 The nurse told her that to start her feeding she needed
to push the nipple into her mouth and I tell you,
this girl listened intently and did just as she was told,
Baby J latched and sucked like a pro.
 Cousin Lizzie, who is more like a sister to these girls,
came for the visit, with her Daddy, Pae' as we all know him.
The photo below is one of my favorites from the whole morning.
All their faces, enjoying the birth, the miracle of life.



Yeah I know I am a tad dramatic when blogging,
talking about our family.
Yet, anyone who knows me, knows its how I roll.
I, being a childhood cancer survivor, who was not
supposed to live past the age of 12,
having all these blessings, being able
to have my own two children,
my own grandchildren,
well none of it is taken for granted.
I am one blessed Momma, Mother in law,
MUMSIE!