Happy 90th Something Birthday to My Second Mom

December 1, 2020

Lorraine,

Happy, happy birthday!  Is this 93?  Whatever the year, it is certainly a milestone of life that many do not make and a milestone that we are so happy to see for you, and for us, for the miles traveling along with you, have always been miles of life and learning for me, especially since you have known me since I have been four months old or so.  And the life of our two families over the years in my heart and mind, perhaps even soul, have imparted many learning pauses, opportunities, and just an abundance of many still vivid memories of life – family life, human life, shared religious/spiritual life, childhood and teenage life.  And you were always one of those characters, persons, always present to help the narrative of my life along, moving it with meaning, emphasis, words of rebuke and kindness, which in life are just the opposite sides of the coin of human love.

Everything you gave me was kind and lively, very lively in your own Chicago way, and for me that made it interesting, unique, and even deeply appreciated and humorous to my mind, perhaps the key in turning the lock to my mind and heart even then.  And when I was just a small child watching you trying to swat all the bees that had angrily followed me and Dan into the house, when we ran screaming into the house after I kicked the beehive twice, probably as hard as a two-year-old was capable of, and as I watched you frantically swatting all the bees, I must have thought it at least mildly amusing then, because now when I think back on it, as I am now, I still smile because it was sort of funny, you all excited in your Chicago sort of way.

And I always join and equate this memory with my first remembered taste of honey, for as I stared at the mason jar of honey on your table, a huge piece of the honeycomb in the middle, leaning at an angle, and the honey so dark, almost black, and I was given a teaspoon of the honey to taste, bits of honeycomb in the mouth, everything exploding on my tongue and mind and definitely soul, with that incredibly intense, sweet, flavorful of the earth and of the sky the bees flew about in, an intense and so overwhelming pleasure of taste, that I remember it still as such to this day.

And this is how I remember you now on your birthday, as the needed but kind and firm rebukes at times, coupled with the intense joy of the honey from your bees and fig and avocado trees of your backyard, the dark almost black honey, because these two things are what you are to me.

Again, happy, happy, birthday whatever 90th birthday it is.

With appreciation and love,

Chris

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