Remembering

Today is officially designated as Memorial Day. It is a day when we remember our dead. It is also a day for the living. As an artist I try and do a picture each year to commemorate the day. Sometimes the picture comes easily but sometimes I struggle. With this picture I had an image in mind and then had to struggle to tell the computer what I wanted it to do. In the end we compromised and the computer and I came up with “Remembering Today.”

Have you ever tried to tell a computer what a rainbow is? The best you can do is say it is a point on the x, y & z axis’s at and go from there. You and I can look up at a rainbow and see the colors and hope after a storm. This rainbow has a special meaning. The computer is more literally minded.

Starting at the top of the rainbow is James Francis Wilson, he was my Dad’s father. He died when my Dad was 23. I never had a chance to know him but through my Dad I came to appreciate the things he passed on. Dad was very mechanically inclined and he inherited that from his Dad. My Dad adored him and that makes him a special person to me. It is eerie how much he and my Dad looked alike. According to my Aunt Hazel sometimes you had to look twice when one of them came into the room in order to tell who was who. They looked and sounded exactly alike. He liked sports and Dad was a sport’s nut. He and my Dad shared a love of baseball and softball. Being an only daughter was no barrier in my Dad passing that love onto me and tomboy that I am I loved playing catch with him.

Next down is a woman called Gertrude Tiffany Wilson. She was my Dad’s mother. She died when he was six. His memories of her were those of a child who loved his mother very much. I would have loved to have known this woman. She played a French horn in a circus band. She had to have been a fun and remarkable woman. The fact that my Dad missed her so intensely all his life speaks of a woman who loved and was loved.

Next down the rainbow is Jack Lloyd Wilson, my Dad. I’m remembering my Dad’s sense of humor today. When we got my Dad on the internet we told him about “handles” the name he would be known by. Only my Dad would pick “genlnuis” for a handle. I laughed and laughed when I realized it stood for “General Nuisance.” It was no wonder that Dad and I loved Monty Python. His sense of humor was very compatible with that British sense of lunacy.

The man in black and white is Hiram Hughes, my Mom’s father. I was privileged to know this man and love him. He was a tall, gentle, good humored Irishman. My mother was his “baby” and as her only daughter I was his special “baby” too. I was only eight when he died but I can remember him clearly to this day. I remember sitting on his lap and feeling the rough touch of hands that had worked so hard all his life. He believed in a honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay and he worked hard all his life. He never let anything get him down. His nickname was “Happy” and the picture you see of him is edited from a picture of him holding me on his lap. My mother mourned him all her life. I will never forget his love.

The woman is Una Mae Hensley Hughes and Mom’s mother. Talk about an opinionated, bull-headed, obstinate woman I’ll put my Grandma up against all contenders and would win. Did you know that her Dad won the Civil War single handedly on the Yankee side? The history books didn’t say anything about that? You just didn’t listen carefully to the stories my Grandma told. They broke the mold after they made her. I remember her well. I would call her up and my side of the conversation was “Hello Grandma” and after that I could read, do cross word puzzles, watch TV or anything else because that was the last word I would get in. She was such a character and I loved her dearly. She was a staunch Republican and anything that displeased her was the Democrat’s fault. Did you know that a barking dog was a Democrat? Remembering her today still makes me laugh.

The woman at the end of the rainbow is Mary Jane “Pat” Hughes Wilson, my Mom. We lost Mom on Wednesday. She died of heart failure in her bed in the home she loved. I have been struggling with the pain for days but today I am remembering her with laughter. Mom was passionate about her cat Pixie. Mom had always been a dog person and grieved over the death years ago of her dog Ruffles. As my cousin Janet and I were reminiscing the other day we never in a million years would have thought Mom could be so crazy about a cat. Pixie, however, is the prettiest, smartest, and most wonderful cat who ever lived. My Mom said so. About a week ago my Mom had to put her aloe-vera plant outside because Pixie kept digging it up and leaving it on the floor. Try not to burst out laughing when your Mom puts the cat on the counter and starts scolding her. “Look at me young lady,” my Mom said to the cat, “Dig you dig up my plant? You know better then that. How many times have I told you to leave my plants alone?” Pixie of course looked at her like she was losing her mind. Really you expect a cat to behave or do as she is told? Of course Pixie cuteted her way out of it and before the evening was over Mom was feeding her treats again. As a long time cat owner I just smiled. Mom was so very like her Mom that there was no reason to even try and explain the working of a cat’s mind. You know the” I am a cat and you are just a human” mentality? Pixie added three years to my Mom’s life so little Princess Nuisance can get away with anything she wants. She and my Dad would have gotten along very well. The General and the Princess sounds like it would make a fun book to read. Maybe I’ll write it one day.

So today is Memorial Day and even though it is a day to remember the dead and a day where some of us are dealing with a personal sadness it is also a day that brings a wealth of warm memories to me. So for the grandparents I never knew, the grandparents I did, and the parents I loved know that I’m thinking of you on this Memorial Day with love and some very happy memories and I know we will meet again. I love you and miss you but the warm memories I have will sustain me and will never fade.