A little reflection... 1-27-2010
It is fascinating to read these letters in the midst of my own wedding planning. There are so many differences, yet the pure emotion is so very similar. They were so in love, as I am so in love. That love is not yet stretched with daily worries and exasperations. I know they will come, both for Evelyn and Orville and for me and Jim. But for now, bliss.
A note about cast of characters – Evelyn had one sibling who survived childhood (and two who did not), Carolyn. Carolyn never really matured past a second or third-grade developmental level, despite being taken to every specialist possible. Carolyn lived far longer than most developmentally-challenged people – she survived both parents and her sister. As a reader, you will see references to Carolyn, whose full name was Jimmie Carolyn Bramley. When I was a child, Carolyn was a playmate and a sort of older sister to me. When I was a teenager, Carolyn could drive me crazy, asking me repeatedly “what would you be doing if you were at home?” As an adult, I came to appreciate the simple joys she took from life – wondering what her family was doing, recounting all the places she had been, saying daily prayers, and watching her stories”on television. Most of all, she expressed an unfailing and unconditional love for her family.
Without a doubt, the best thing that ever happened to Carolyn came in the form of two angels sent to earth: Iva Mae and Lucy. Iva and Lucy were sisters, who came to be Carolyn’s caregivers late in her life. They treated her with dignity, respect, compassion, and equality, embracing her as a part of their lives beyond what any of her biological family were able to do. They took her to movies, restaurants, church, to visit friends – she became their family and they hers. There is, perhaps, a little bit of shame in me that we, Carolyn’s biological family, were not quite capable of being her caregivers in the same way Iva and Lucy were. All I know for sure is that there is no doubt in my mind that God sent Iva and Lucy to our family and made them part of our family. Any history of my family should include these ladies.
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