This past Saturday, January 4, was the five year anniversary of my mother's passing. I call it "Gaga's day" as Gaga is what my oldest niece (and the only grandchild my mother ever got to meet) called her. It's still a difficult day for me, as it is for certain other members of my family, because for many reasons, our lives won't ever be the same. However, every year I try to focus on the positive and do all the things she loved; dressing up, wearing pearls, a colorful lipstick, & her favorite Angel perfume, spending time with family, reading, cooking, having a cocktail right at 5pm, enjoying the beauty of a favorite location, etc... So on Saturday, my friend Olivia and I had lunch together with our baby boys and plenty of beermosas, pineapple champagne, blueberry compote french toast, fried green tomato BLT, and seasonal veggie hash. We weren't shy and had a lovely time!
Then after lunch we made our way over to another friends house to chill...and drink some wine. Don't judge - it was Saturday! I ended the night on the couch with my hubby, another glass of wine, our favorite pizza and football...it was divine!
Sunday was quite perfect though. In the last few years before my mother's passing, her and my father spent quite a bit of time in Central Florida. My mother found peace here. The weather was much more tolerable than in Michigan, the sunsets seemed more magical, bust mostly, she felt a connection with the way of life here; especially how Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' words brought this "connection" to life for her. In fact, at the entrance of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' farm is a quote from her book Cross Creek written in 1942. It says, "It is necessary to leave the impersonal highway, to step inside the rusty gate and close it behind. One is now inside the orange grove out of one world and in the mysterious heart of another. And after long years of spiritual homelessness, of nostalgia, here is that mystic loveliness of childhood again. Here is home." This was my mother...she could have written it herself. Here, in this little area of the world she felt at home. It was a place, for whatever reason, that she was able to forget all the bad. So, it is here that Joe and I took Wake.
GPS // Sign at the entrance // Historic Site // Chicken Coop
Barn //Marjorie's Car // her typewriter // her library and lounge chair
MKR monogram napkin // MKR monogram suitcase // Marjorie's ironing board and iron // dining room
Kitchen pantry // outhouse // picking tangerines in her yard // so fresh!
Wake and Joe enjoying Marjorie's garden...Gaga's favorite place
I LOVED that MJK had monogrammed napkins and a suitcase even in the 1940s...so chic! Definitely a girl after my own heart! My favorite part was that we got to pick as many tangerines & grapefruit as we wanted from the trees in the garden because there is a freeze coming in tomorrow night and all the fruit will be lost. Talk about perfect timing...we are loaded down with the purest and most fresh citrus Central Florida has to offer!
After our lovely tour around the property we drove a mile or so down the road into Cross Creek to Marjorie's restaurant, The Yearling. The last time Joe and I were there was with my parents, and we were little grad students that were only just dating ;-).
The Yearling // The menu...real southern cuisine!
Willie // Wake & Joe dancing
Dinner was delicious, and we were so glad we got to share this experience with W that we have decided to make it a yearly tradition. This way all our children will feel some sort of connection with their Gaga.
~ Live in the moment and have great week Lovies ~
Morgan
Labels: Black Sheep, Cross Creek, family, Kahlil Gibran, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, weekend recap
