Memorial Day, 2012

It's been too long since I wrote.  My peace lily bloomed again, but it's already faded--no one wants a picture of dying flowers.  We made it through Memorial Day.  As we usually do, we went to Mass at the cemetery in the morning, then visited Thomas's grave, and then had a cookout in the afternoon.

Now a word about the cookout.  When this holiday began, it was known as Decoration Day, and families would picnic among the tombstones they were cleaning and decorating with flags and flowers.  We don't picnic at the cemetery any more (they'd throw us out) but we can still have a memorial meal that we enjoy.  I know Thomas would have liked it--and as long as we remember why this day is special it's OK to have fun too.  This time we just had a few friends and our immediate family but it was good to spend the day people we love and who loved Thomas too.

Since then I've been mostly busy trying to keep my household running and staying in touch with just about everyone it seems.   Missing Thomas more for some reason.  My daughter Maria's most recent Facebook profile picture is of her and Thomas and every time I see the picture I'm startled, thinking he's on Facebook too, for a little moment.  I know he's not:  it's just that these pictures seem to literally return me to that time for a moment.  A little time travel:  that's what I need.  Oddly, that's where I started.  The very moment the notification team was walking up to my door, I was reading a time travel story by Connie Willis:  To Say Nothing of the Dog.  Traveling back to save artifacts from certain destruction was the premise, but not people.  Maybe it created too many paradoxes to save people.

Anyway, we put some of Thomas's things in the Rockville Memorial Library's display case for May this year.    I need to go pick those up but nothing seems all that urgent.  Maybe tomorrow.