It’s amazing to me that after seventy-six straight days of blogging, I can forget to blog. I didn’t actually forget because here I am, and it’s not quite the end of the day. The truth is, I am here only because I happened to catch a glimpse of my note reminding me to blog. I’ll probably have to start leaving myself a note reminding me to remember to look at the note reminding me to blog.
Not that it’s important — I’m sure you wouldn’t mind a day off from my mental meanderings — it’s just that I challenged myself to write a blog every day for one hundred days, and it’s the one challenge I’ve ever managed to complete. (This is the second time I’ve done this — the last time, once the hundred days were finished, I kept going for four years!) It seemed like a good idea back then, but right now? Not so much. I’m too tired to make sense of this day.
I spent most of the morning and afternoon baking, and now my freezer is filled with cookies, not just those I made today, but those I made a couple of weeks ago.
It’s strange to be doing all this baking. I don’t usually keep things like flour and sugar on hand because I try (not very successfully) to stay away from both wheat and sugar, and if I have treats on hand, I eat them. I don’t know where this urge to bake has come from. Maybe it has to do with having my own grown-up Suzy Homemaker kitchen. Maybe it’s because I’m remembering my mother, which I have often done ever since I got this house. I’ve been especially interested in making the cookies she used to make at this time of year, like Cherry winks and date nut pinwheels.
I’ve been remembering my father, too. Some friends invited me to a VFW Auxiliary dinner this evening, with the hopes that I would join the organization. My father’s Navy service in World War II would make me eligible . . . maybe. He didn’t serve in a foreign country, unless the Bermuda triangle can be considered such — he was one of those tasked with trying to track down the planes that disappeared in that area. More than that, he was a great one for making notes to help him remember, so every time I make a note, I remember him.
Now that I think about it, I’ve been remembering all my dead — not just Jeff and my mother and my father, but also two of my brothers. The memories seem strong here where I now live, though this is neither a house nor an area where any of them have ever even visited. But I am here. And the memories came with me.
I might need notes to remind me of certain things, such as writing a blog, but I do not need a note to remind me of all those who are gone.
I remember.
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Pat Bertram is the author of Grief: The Inside Story – A Guide to Surviving the Loss of a Loved One. “Grief: The Inside Story is perfect and that is not hyperbole! It is exactly what folk who are grieving need to read.” –Leesa Healy, RN, GDAS GDAT, Emotional/Mental Health Therapist & Educator.
Bertram's Blog 
December 10, 2019 at 7:31 am
I’m glad you remembered because I sit chained to this computer most of the day. I look forward to your blog. No blog. No blog. No blog. Finally.
December 10, 2019 at 8:28 am
What a lovely thing to say! Not about being chained to the computer, but about looking forward to my blog. Thank you!
December 11, 2019 at 3:35 pm
I look every day. And if I’m not on the right page today, it’s because I have a bad cold and am shivering. Going to bed. Keep writing, lovely Ms Pat.
December 11, 2019 at 4:09 pm
Get better! Tomorrow you will have two blogs to read. (I’m writing today’s right now.)
December 10, 2019 at 9:45 am
You had a very handsome father & cute brothers. The baking I think comes from all the memories of past Christmas’s & what they held for you. Let me know if you run out of places to distribute your tasty goodies. I can always munch on them with the tasty teas at “Tea Time”.
December 10, 2019 at 6:08 pm
For sure!
December 10, 2019 at 5:06 pm
[…] didn’t copy all of her cookie recipes. Neither cherry winks nor date nut pinwheels were favorites of mine when I was young, but luckily, my sister kept them, thinking that mother’s […]