Sunday, October 23, 2011

A Beautiful Sight

Two of my favorite matriarchs

My mother, age 96
and my Aunt Loma, age 86
They both (plus Jocile) joined us at Girls' Night


My Mother's Hand

Doll clothes from Santa . . .
My amazement that the fabric matched clothing of mine

Laying my head in her lap at church
Her hand stroking my hair

"Spit bath" on the way to church
Her hankie washing a bit of dried milk from my face

Standing at the bar
watching her hand on the wooden spoon, stirring the browning hamburger
Me, offering lengthy soliloquies about my day

My hair dampened
Scissors in her hand
I watch her stretch a length to her second knuckle 
snip snip

With the shake of paper
she straightened the Sunday funnies in front of our faces
Square by square
she read of Dagwood and Dick Tracy

Suitcase opened
clothing washed
I watched her press the long white pleats
She spoke softly about where she was going

Hrick . . . hrick  . . .hrick . . . .
her hand moving up and down 
Silver sewing scissors 
cutting through fabric 
on a green surface
I watched, fascinated, as she angled cuts
around every black arrow shape

What memory do you have of the labor of her hands?

1 comment:

  1. So many memories of her hands. . . making hotcakes and wheat bread. . . her helping me frame and tie a quilt of old T-shirts from high school.

    All the many crafty projects she helps us cousins work on, the one I remember most is the beads we made out of magazine pages and then strung for necklaces, I keep seeing them all over Pinterest these days so they must be the trendy craft right now- I guess Grandma was ahead of her time!

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