May Time Festivities

Flags were flying along the roadside for Memorial Day weekend as I drove into our village to attend a wedding Saturday.  It was a sweet wedding with the bride’s young adult son and daughter serving as attendants. Nephews were ushers, and bought in the bride’s mother in her wheelchair. (Someone told me a photo of the bride’s late father was there with her in the pew.) Beautiful music was provided by a sister and young friend. Another sister and family had come from the Washington, D.C. area, and cousins and an uncle had come down from northern part of the state. Her only brother, a skilled chef, was in the church kitchen preparing a sumptuous dinner for the reception after the ceremony. A brother-in-law was chosen to escort the bride, and when asked who was giving the bride away, his reply was, “Her family.”  I liked that answer because this scattered but close knit family was all there to support the couple in this village church their grandparents had attended.  I felt as if groom was being added to their family even more than she was being given away.

Our weekend treat was the unexpected visit of Gerry and Vickie, our son and wife and granddaughter Geri Ann.   I was spending Friday night at Katherine’s, but I bought barbecued pork steak from Small’s that I knew Gerry liked.  So with that simple supper, I had time to enjoy their arrival before I left. They always tell me not to cook, but I like to have them at our table.  Their goal as Gerry texted on the way up was to fish and fish and fish.  And they did.  Geri Ann, of course, was soon off to her old hometown to visit her Johnston City friends and catch up on happenings there. 

Vickie and Geri Ann had lunch and an afternoon in town with Vickie’s mother, who came onto Katherine’s where she visits and helps her on Saturday evenings. When I got back to Woodsong from the wedding and then Katherine’s house again, Gerry was out in the shop cleaning fish, but we all had a simple supper together with fresh strawberry short cake for dessert, Gerry and Vickie and her brother Louie and nephew Drew had caught plenty of fish for a fish fry at Louie’s house Sunday afternoon and also to put a supply into our freezer.  With the final washing of the fish in the kitchen sink, people went to bed with our house definitely smelling fishy, but they were a happy crew for the pleasure and success they had experienced on the lake. 

It was especially good to have Gerry and Vickie with Geri Ann sitting with us at worship on Sunday morning. We were invited to dinner at the fish fry, but I was planning on going to Katherine’s and I think Gerald was ready for a nap.  Of course, we suspected we would have fish brought to us anyhow, and we were not disappointed with the fish and shrimp and potatoes Vickie carried over. There were also small plastic bags of the same that I could take to Katherine’s, and that is what she had for supper tonight.

After Brianna’s recovery from wisdom tooth removal, she and her mother Mary Ellen were able to join Brian and Trent in their home here on Sunday, where they will be spending more and more time now that school is out.  Their urgent family goal is to get their crops planted after all this wet weather.  Mary Ellen was pitching in with the farming but she did come over to Woodsong for a brief visit and brought a Mother’s Day gift.  Unfortunately, I was at Katherine’s and missed her.  But the cousins had a get-together at Trent and Brianna’s house, and then those two came to Woodsong to stay up late Sunday night visiting with Geri Ann before their family went back to Georgia early Monday. Since Katherine’s regular aide was unable to come that night, Gerry came in and put Katherine to bed and I spent the night.  So I didn’t get to send them off, but Trent and Brianna were still here when I got back to the farm.  They didn’t stay around long, but they knew I was going to be napping shortly.

This afternoon Sam and his buddy Josh came out with their bikes in Josh's pickup, and rode over to Sarahville road and back.  They were hot and sweaty when they stopped by afterwards, but I teased they had a ways to go before they caught up with Jeannie, so I gave them no pity. Earlier I had 

reluctantly carried out the bouquet Jeannie’s family had sent me for Mother’s Day.  It had stayed lovely for over a week, but no longer. The rose petals on the dining room table had to be gathered and the cloth removed for the laundry.   So it had to go after I rescued the five remaining daisies that were still pretty enough to fill a little vase on my kitchen window sill.  The May festivities are over, but those daisies will keep me remembering the good times.