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Sunday, April 24, 2011

Christian then, Jewish now, but always full of love

New blog entry:
A happy Easter indeed

Excerpt:
20 YEARS AGO –> LAST WEEK

About a week ago, I got a message on Facebook asking, “Do you remember me?”

I wrote back, “HOLY COW. Do I remember you?!”

My childhood was marked by sequences of minor and major tragedies. Once in a while, those tragedies would go on vacation, leaving me and my siblings to enjoy mostly cheerful times. Many such times were with my mom’s friend D and her children. Unlike my mom’s other “friends,” D wasn’t interested in knocking my mom’s life to feel better about her own. She and my mom had good arguments and good times alike together.

The same was true of the relationships between my mom’s kids and D’s kids. Oh, how we could fight! Amidst the typical childhood squabbles, though, there were a lot of really sweet moments.

Many of my favorite moments were with D’s daughter H. She was simultaneously sweet and ferocious, so that I felt virtually invulnerable when she was around. Sure, she might have choice words for me if I said something stupid (moi? never!), but she’d also tell someone off if they looked at me wrong. She celebrated a couple of adolescent milestones with me, taking me out for bagels so that I felt like a big, worldly woman.

2 comments:

  1. It's cool (most of the time) getting a blast from the past, so to speak. It always makes me think about how much I've changed as a person since then. Not necessarily bad or good, just different.

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  2. Beautifully put. That sentiment, in different words, is foremost in my mind this morning.

    Thank you for commenting!

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