MY WORDS JUST A WEEK AGO WERE,
"I am not putting up all my xmas stuff"
The holidays are just not what they used to be.
Yet bare with this blog as I lead you to where
so many things led to this....
First Charles Manson died. And I was angry....
I was angry because this mass murderer, the devil
I speak of, finally was off our world and the media
thought this was the best thing to report about.
Over all these years he has gotten way to much
publicity, and now, even in death, he is the number
one thing people wanted to read about.
I understand this whole paragraph is an
oxymoron as I have given him even more publicity
but it is part of my story.
Then, David Cassidy died and I remembered all those
days after school, that I watched
THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY
and drooled over the legend that became David Cassidy.
Then one more death, the death of a beautiful woman,
one that won't be heard of all over the world
even though she has done more for it than
the two famous people I mentioned.
Pam Alario Gravois died.
No news reports on all she did for so many children
that crossed her path during all her years of teaching.
Unless you are from our little bayou of Lafourche,
the name may not mean much to you,
but to us who grew up around her and her family,
in the prescience of her beautiful life,
her death is more of a loss to our world than the two
I mentioned before. I thought that here was a woman
who has achieved more than Manson or Cassidy,
who gave selflessly, who was beautiful in demeanor,
who I never saw with a ugly word on her tongue.
I thought this is the kind of woman who should be
showered with news media because of her death.
But it will only be our little community and
the others who know her who will know how big
this loss is.
(Praying her family will forgive me for using her in
my blog without permission)
So, all this is going through my mind yesterday morning
when I am still thinking
"I will have Bean help me to put my Xmas things
from the shed into the attic and put up one
small tree."
Then something happened, Pam's death was still
on my heart and my little Bean, helping me
load huge Xmas Totes into the house is so very
excited to open each one to see what is in it.
"Mumsie, this is like Christmas morning because
we don't know what is in these boxes"
I watch her eyes light up as she pulls out each
new thing that I have saved over the last 30 something years.
JoJo gets wind of it and starts helping unorganize
all my Xmas "Stuff"
I see the magic in their eyes and I once again
think of Pam whose family is feeling such a loss,
of her little grandchildren who will not sit
with her around a Thanksgiving feast today,
that they will not help her put up her Grandmother Xmas.
I became teary eyed as I see the magic of the season
in my two of three grand girls eyes.
Then it happened, I put a smile on my face and instead
of putting these beautiful treasures in the attic we
begin putting them all over the cottage.
The girls put a small tree with the coolest lights
in their room on their own mantle.
JoJo is so in love with this that she has to lay
in her little bunk to view the lights for a time.
Their excitement becomes contagious with every
new thing they find.
I decide that this is what the holidays are about,
the memories of Mumsie I want to leave in their mind
and hearts. If I am taken from this Earth within this year,
I will not make news like Manson or Cassidy
but I will do those things that will make my loss
felt like the true hero of this story, Pam.
My Grand girls will remember this holiday,
the one Mummies put out every Decoration she had,
for them. The year Mumsie put up three trees, each prettier
than the last. They will remember that I did not fuss
for anything they touched or any ornament they broke
because, where we go after this World, well we not taking
anything with us.
I decorate for my girls and I decorate in memory of Pam
and all our other legends of Lafourche lost this year
who will not get the recognition they should.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all, make this the year you
put out all the decor, like I decided to do for the
memories I want to leave with three little girls
who are my life, my
Thanksgiving.
(Thank you in advance to the Alario/Gravois family for
allowing me to share part of Pam's life)
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