I'm back
yah, I haven't posted anything for a while but that's because I feel like I really haven't had much to post. Sure I've had the day to day activities but I think those things could be really boring. I don't have any new pictures and haven't really done anything exciting. I've talked with my sisters a lot, cleaned the apartment really well (it needs to be done again), visited with some older friends, but I haven't gone out or really seen my friends at all in the last week. I went to bed at 11:30 on St. Patricks day. bummer. I wasn't really looking for a crazy clubbing night but I wanted to have a little bit more fun than that. I wore my pointy high heel shoes, for pete's sake (for only the second time!). I guess I'm still a student and all my friends are out in the working world going to bed early. I procrastinated a lot... still am.
Here is one reportable event of my last week. My dad's cousin, Liz Vermeer died this week. She was in her late 60's and died of a horrible disease, Lou Gerig's (sp?) or ALS. I heard it was really a blessing that she got to go. I guess her husband said that she went straight from hell to heaven. I didn't know her at all and hardly knew about the connection. She is my grandmother's (Oma) sister's daughter. She herself had children and grandchildren, plus many other cousins and siblings that I don't know but at the same time I do know her and them because of who we all are. We are all dutch and most of us are Christians (I would assume). I know that Liz was. And so I could go to her funeral and feel completely at home and understand the promise of salvation and comfort that was spoken and sung about. Because her disease was such a long drawn out terminal illness she had a lot of time to think about when she was finally going to die and to say good-bye. I guess she was quite the organizer and so she planned and organized her whole funeral before she died. (My Oma informed me that Liz's mother, Tante Nell, didn't really like that. It's not right.) I thought that was so beautiful. The songs that were sung were so applicable to what she would have been feeling before she died and what we could all be feeling now that she died. "How Vast the Benefits Divine", "Precious Lord, Take My Hand", "How Great Thou Art", "The lord Never Closees His Eyes", "Where's Your Help Come From?", "By the Sea of Crystal" (one of my favorites). What a testimony to faith to sing these at the request of a woman dying of a torturous disease.
So you might be asking, if I didn't know this woman, why did I go to the funeral? Well, my Dad's side of the family is smaller than most and so when it comes to available people to drive my Oma (83) to the funeral, the list is quite short. My aunt had an appointment, my mom and dad (the usual picks) were gone on vacation (backpacking in Mexico!!!), my sister was painting my parents place and it needed to be done before they come home, and my other aunts and sisters live to far away. So that left me. I skipped two classes and canceled a shift at work but I think that I came away with the better deal. I don't think I've ever spent more than an hour alone with my Oma, not even that. I had 3-4 hours alone with her on Thursday. I had to go pick her up (an hour away after stopping at my parents), drive to Grimsby (1.5 hours), have lunch with her (.75 hours), and then drive back to Hamilton, (.5 hours), plus I made her stop by at my place to see my apartment since she hasn't seen where I've been living the last 5 years and I will be moving soon. It was a really good time. We talked a lot, there were no silences. I tried to ask some questions to hear about her past and learn some heritage, she told me about Opa, and when he dies some day (soon I think, 1-2 years), how it was growing up, her relationship with her grandparents, her first sleep over (with a really nasty girl who turned out to be a Nazi lover), her relationship to Tante Nell (her sister) and the cousins, and all sorts of stuff in between. I didn't have to bring her all the way home yet. I dropped her off and my Aunt JoAnn's who took her home. Oma figured JoAnn concocted up this plan of getting these rides just so that we could get her out to visit our places out here. I think it was a good idea. I really don't think that I'll ever be super close with my Oma anymore but I want to say that we did know each other, that she knew that I cared about her. That was my main event this week.
I desperately crave summer. I think I'm still being hit with the winter blues. I need the sun and warmth. I want to get in my garden, or go swimming or do chores outside, have campfires, where shorts and tanktops!!! Ahhh I need summer. So I ordered my seeds for my garden this summer. I didn't get a lot but I got things that I knew I would want to plant by seed, there are lots of things that I think I will probably buy from a greehouse already started (like broccoli and tomatoes, if my parents don't have extras). I'm hoping this might tide me over for a while. This and the fact that I'm starting to see some tulips popping up through the soil!!!
Here is one reportable event of my last week. My dad's cousin, Liz Vermeer died this week. She was in her late 60's and died of a horrible disease, Lou Gerig's (sp?) or ALS. I heard it was really a blessing that she got to go. I guess her husband said that she went straight from hell to heaven. I didn't know her at all and hardly knew about the connection. She is my grandmother's (Oma) sister's daughter. She herself had children and grandchildren, plus many other cousins and siblings that I don't know but at the same time I do know her and them because of who we all are. We are all dutch and most of us are Christians (I would assume). I know that Liz was. And so I could go to her funeral and feel completely at home and understand the promise of salvation and comfort that was spoken and sung about. Because her disease was such a long drawn out terminal illness she had a lot of time to think about when she was finally going to die and to say good-bye. I guess she was quite the organizer and so she planned and organized her whole funeral before she died. (My Oma informed me that Liz's mother, Tante Nell, didn't really like that. It's not right.) I thought that was so beautiful. The songs that were sung were so applicable to what she would have been feeling before she died and what we could all be feeling now that she died. "How Vast the Benefits Divine", "Precious Lord, Take My Hand", "How Great Thou Art", "The lord Never Closees His Eyes", "Where's Your Help Come From?", "By the Sea of Crystal" (one of my favorites). What a testimony to faith to sing these at the request of a woman dying of a torturous disease.
So you might be asking, if I didn't know this woman, why did I go to the funeral? Well, my Dad's side of the family is smaller than most and so when it comes to available people to drive my Oma (83) to the funeral, the list is quite short. My aunt had an appointment, my mom and dad (the usual picks) were gone on vacation (backpacking in Mexico!!!), my sister was painting my parents place and it needed to be done before they come home, and my other aunts and sisters live to far away. So that left me. I skipped two classes and canceled a shift at work but I think that I came away with the better deal. I don't think I've ever spent more than an hour alone with my Oma, not even that. I had 3-4 hours alone with her on Thursday. I had to go pick her up (an hour away after stopping at my parents), drive to Grimsby (1.5 hours), have lunch with her (.75 hours), and then drive back to Hamilton, (.5 hours), plus I made her stop by at my place to see my apartment since she hasn't seen where I've been living the last 5 years and I will be moving soon. It was a really good time. We talked a lot, there were no silences. I tried to ask some questions to hear about her past and learn some heritage, she told me about Opa, and when he dies some day (soon I think, 1-2 years), how it was growing up, her relationship with her grandparents, her first sleep over (with a really nasty girl who turned out to be a Nazi lover), her relationship to Tante Nell (her sister) and the cousins, and all sorts of stuff in between. I didn't have to bring her all the way home yet. I dropped her off and my Aunt JoAnn's who took her home. Oma figured JoAnn concocted up this plan of getting these rides just so that we could get her out to visit our places out here. I think it was a good idea. I really don't think that I'll ever be super close with my Oma anymore but I want to say that we did know each other, that she knew that I cared about her. That was my main event this week.
I desperately crave summer. I think I'm still being hit with the winter blues. I need the sun and warmth. I want to get in my garden, or go swimming or do chores outside, have campfires, where shorts and tanktops!!! Ahhh I need summer. So I ordered my seeds for my garden this summer. I didn't get a lot but I got things that I knew I would want to plant by seed, there are lots of things that I think I will probably buy from a greehouse already started (like broccoli and tomatoes, if my parents don't have extras). I'm hoping this might tide me over for a while. This and the fact that I'm starting to see some tulips popping up through the soil!!!
posted by Nicole at 10:08 a.m.
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