Memories

     This photo is above my desk and I was looking at it after viewing my sisters beautifully done Celebration of the life of her grand daughter Paige.  Paige is our grand niece but through the years families moving from place to place, we have not had the closeness a lot of families have and most of my memories of Paige are when she was small and the family lived close to my sister.
     As I looked at the collage I had put together years ago I thought of my mother.  She loved all the grandchildren.
     Mama was a great grandmother by this time and now I am the great grandmother of four and one more on the way.  So many time lately the question has been asked, "where did the years go?"  The baby died in crib death.  The little red head is not married.  The young man with the etch a sketch has two sons and the little girl on the horse has two sons of her own.  The young man third from the left on the bottom row will be daddy to his first child in a few months.  Mama died and never saw the little girl (our fifth grandchild) not in the picture because she died about five months prior to her birth.
     Since my blog is public, I have decided not to put names to the pictures.  Isn't it a shame when we cannot name our family members for fear of someone using the names to steal our identity?
     As I look into the eyes of the little red head memories flood over me like a tidal wave shifting me back and forth like a fan cooling someone on a hot summer day.  Looking into their little eyes one sees innocence, laughter, smiles, happiness. 
     I have never written a blog that I didn't have something inspire me and have a story just bursting out to be written down.  Tonight it isn't here.  There is a sadness for the loss of our great niece and the suffering I know her mother and grandmothers feel at this time.  We are to rejoice at the death and weep at the birth but nobody does.  I will have to look up that sometime and see how it is referenced because I have not seen this happen in anyone's life.  I have witnessed a lot of happiness when the children are born and experienced the loss and pain that death brings.  So tonight I think I will just quit and refrain from sharing my memories.  But they are as real as the faces of those little ones in the photo. Maybe all the stories will come at a happier time and I will come and share them with you.