November 13th - Anniversary of Mom's passing.

2011
Today we all did something honoring Mom.

My sister and I "lit" a votive candle at the church - (Ascension /& our parochial school) and we ate breakfast in our old neighborhood, (Montavilla). 
(Turns out you cannot light a candle any more. They are covered vases on the same tiered rack like they used to be. A machine that accepts money (bills only) allows you one lighting per bill. Tap the top of the vase and an electronic "flicker" flame will glow. Boy that was CHEESY.)
Kath and I sat in the sanctuary, looked around the school & noticed all the changes since the sixties.  It HAS been a long time since we were students there.
We put our names on a wait list for breakfast and toured the old neighborhood.  The Academy Theater is now a movie theater again. For many years, it has been the Nickel Ads newspaper. Before Sunday theater times, it is dual-purposed as a church, because it was open, we toured the theater too.  This was out hangout -back-in-the-day.

After our meal, we drove our old street and went past 334 SE 83rd. Before heading home, we drove to our aunt and uncle's old home, too.

Altogether, a fitting, nostalgic rememberance.

My brother is in Thailand today and he scattered some of Mom's ashes there. He sent and email about his day and we sent one to him.

 

This is us in Disneyland. I was ten. Mom sewed all our clothing.

This is Mom and I in Sedona, 2008.

This picture has always been a favorite. This is Mom and Dad in their dating years.

Sarah, Jordan and Ben - with their grandma.

Grandson, (my nephew) Eric, who "gave Joyce a lift" at his wedding-rehearsal-dinner. 

Sept. 2010

                          Mom and I in front of her Tucson trailer. (Her home until she passed)

                                                This was the summer of 1999.

  This is a four-generation-picture.  Alice was probably two months old. This was 2005.

  

Hard to believe how time flies. 

Year two, Kathy and I went back to Montavilla & the neighborhood where we had grown up.

 We did a walking tour and then we ate at the at the same restaurant Mom had occasionally worked at when we were kids: CHINESE VILLAGE. It was not delicious, but we bore-it-out.

In 2010, Mom was cremated. How do you visit a grave once a person is out to sea? We scattered her ashes at Camp Creek Campground on Mt. Hood, in June of 2011. I am sure she is out to sea now.

 

I mentioned earlier the disappointment regarding battery votive candles, that we did, begrudgingly. This year (2013), my sister and I were in New Orleans and we visited the oldest running American Cathedral is in the French Quarter (ST LOUIS CATHEDRAL). We actually LIT candles for Mom there, here are the pictures.

That felt like a better memorial than the battery operated ones. On her birthday this year, my sister and daughter held a birthday party for me and it was held ON Mom's birthday. (She died 4 days before her birthday in 2010). Mom has twin sisters (two years older) and they were both at my party. 

Sad for them, remembering mom that day, but good to have everyone together. 

A mixed bag.