The End of an Era

Saturday, June 21, 2008
One week ago I was preparing to fly to Alabama for my mother-in-law’s funeral. We have made it through the funeral and the awkward few days with family. Family relationships could be the topic of blog but I’ll save that for another day.
We (Easel, Elizabeth and I) have spent the last few days on the “Francis Roberts Memorial Tour”. As a way of honoring his mother, Easel has taken us to some of the attractions in the Huntsville area that his mother would have encouraged us to visit. This was also a way for him to say “good bye” to Huntsville because he doesn’t expect to return in the foreseeable future. We’ve visited some places he saw with her on his visit a couple of weeks before her death. We’ve been to the Space Museum, the Burritt Museum, and visited the Big Spring. It has been a good week.
We’ve looked through old pictures and visited with his aunts. We’ve spent a little time looking through the massive amounts of “things” left in the house. Behind every door, in every chest, and inside every drawer are more and more treasures. We’ve found photo albums with pictures of ancestors piled in cabinets with antique glassware and silver. We’ve found furs, baby shoes and baby books all piled together. It is obvious that some things were just put in a place with little regard to what was stored with it. It reminds me of the way I’ve cleaned my house when unexpected guests arrive—shove things in a drawer or a closet just to get them out of sight!
We will soon finish our visit and begin our journey to Warsaw. This has been a sad interlude but at the same time, it has been a good time to look back. Who are those young people smiling from those photos? Who knew Pop and Toots (grand parents) or Frances and Zeke (parents) were ever that young? Who knew WE were ever that young?