The other day, when Dad called to tell me the news of Aunt Lillian's passing, I experienced one of those moments where sadness and joy collide. Losing a loved one is always sad, no matter what the circumstance, but I couldn't help but be happy for her, knowing that she had lived a long and happy life, and that she was now reunited with her husband after being apart for so long.
That night I lay in bed thinking about her, about our trips to
Englewood, Florida to visit her and Uncle Ray at their beach house when we were little. I don't have a very good memory I'm afraid, but the more I thought, the more things I was able to recall. I was amazed at how many vivid memories I still have of those visits.
I remember playing on the beach for hours and hours, looking for shark teeth, building castles and moats in the sand, and burying one another up to our necks then hunting for sand fleas to scare the buried victim with.
I remember digging down into the sand to collect coquinas to give to Uncle Ray. Seems like he even cooked them once in a while, but I don't remember ever eating them. Maybe we just fed them to the seagulls. That's another fond memory- taking a loaf of bread out to the beach and tossing chunks into the air until we were surrounded by so many seagulls that it got kind of scary.
They also had a coconut tree in their yard, and it never failed to drop one or two for our visit so Uncle Ray could split it open and share the fresh coconut meat with us.
I remember Gertie, the egret (or was she a heron?) who frequented their yard as well. Maybe that's who got the coquinas we collected.
I remember learning to play cards around their table, especially Golf since it wasn't too hard for a kid.
I remember how sweet Lillian and Ray always were to us, and how much Lillian reminded me of my own Grandma Anderson who lived so far away that we only got to see her about once a year. I was grateful for their resemblance because it made me feel closer to my grandparents who I loved and missed so much.
I don't think I can keep going, all this remembering has made me cry. But I thought I'd post the photos I found of a couple of our trips, just to help you guys remember, too.
1987
2 comments:
I remember collecting those sand fleas and putting them into a bucket full of water and seeing who could keep their hands in the water the longest. Then we'd just feed them to the seagulls. I also remember that freakin mermaid of Kimberly's that would sing ALL THE TIME until i took the batteries out and got in trouble.
Those were fun trips to Englewood. Gertie was a Great Blue Heron, and I really hope you never ate any sand fleas - cooked or not! But Uncle Ray would use them for fish bait sometimes. Dad
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