Categories
family life

Dust in the Wind – The Impermanence of Memories

Places don’t have memories. Memories of places belong to the people who hold those memories. When they forget, or die, the memories which they hold die along with them. This doesn’t have to be a glum realization, but there is something about it which feels a little disappointing. A story. After the visit, my uncle […]

Categories
family growth

Reunion and Separation – Mom’s Ashes to France

I am on my way to the cemetery in France with some of my mothers ashes. As I mentioned in a previous post, I am bringing her to rest with her first husband Joe (or Joey as she referred to him) DeRidder who died in Europe during World War II and whose remains are buried […]

Categories
family life

Inchworm

Today is the day I dealt with the “Chicago portion” of my mom’s ashes. It was a wonderful experience. I drove to Foster Ave. beach where my mother loved to lie in the sun and swim and I set up a little altar. Nothing much, just a photograph of my mother and I together, my […]

Categories
america family

Journey of Ashes – Beginning

Here I am at the beginning of this trip, a trip which will include disposing of my mother’s ashes. It is a pilgrimage of sorts, which is really just a subset of this larger pilgrimage in my life, to fully find and become my self, my true self, without overlay of past or future. It […]

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family

Mom’s Ashes

As I mentioned in my last post, part of the reason for this trip is to dispose of my share of my mom’s ashes. It’s something I’ve never dealt with and it’s time. Yesterday, July 1st, was the 11th anniversary of her death. She died in 1998 from cancer which had spread to her liver. […]