Birthdays and Memories

February is a good month for our family. My brother and I were both born in it. Three years apart. So you know that both of us had a birthday last month, and as usual we gave each other funny cards about getting older and creakier, the you'll-always-be-older-than-me kind of card!

It doesn't take much to transport me back in time, back to where we were born and where we grew up. It can be the little jar of stones that I have sitting on my Memories Shelf, little pebbles scooped up from outside our home near Charlibli, Liberia. Mixed in with them is a dried palm nut. Its shape and the little holes in the end are like childhood friends. Sometimes it is the kerosene lamp sitting on that same shelf, a certain haze in the sky, the sudden sight of a snake in the grass. Once in a while, I open my little bottle of 4711 perfume and take a good whiff, and I am once again a little girl with the German ladies who smelled like that! Every now and then I cook collard greens and rice, just because I love them, and the house is filled with an aroma from long ago. No, it doesn't take much...

So when I came home one day around my birthday and found this from Gord on my dining room table, no words were needed. He knew it would take me back.

Hibiscus

It is blooming, day after day,
and each time, I am a little girl again.
The blooms last a day, close up, and fall onto the table.
I pick them up carefully
because even those closed up flowers
are so familiar...
so much a part of me.

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 11/03/2008

Western Meadowlark
(Picture by Gord)

Ooph, what a day this has been! I hope tomorrow is better...
Remember to sing, no matter what!

By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life.
--Psalms 42:8

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 07/30/2008

A stream in
Rocky Mountain National Park
(Taken by Gord on 07/26/2008)


I could sit and watch this for hours!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 07/23/2008

Getting off the ship!
(About 1955)
(I'm sure we were getting off the ship in Liberia in this picture, not on it, because I was younger than this when we left for our one-year visit to Canada.)

My mother is holding Gord's hand, and Esther Monus (another missionary) is holding me.
(Carol-Ann was not born yet.)

Our family traveled back and forth between Canada and Liberia on freighter ships, a trip that took about 10 days. We did not do this very often. The next time we crossed the ocean, I was 8 years old and ready for the 3rd grade.

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 07/22/2008

Gord

He looks like he is about 4 here, which means I was a baby. I was the baby he got tired of really quickly!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 07/19/2008

Atlantic Puffin
(Another of Gord's pictures, taken in New England, 06/15/2008.)

That crease going back from its eye makes it look so sad to me!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 07/05/2008

The mourning dove nesting in our tree

In our front yard is what I call our "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree" because it looks so ... well, strange! It has a straight trunk and lots of branches, but the leaves are all bunched up at the center of the tree, mostly where the bottom branches join the trunk, with long bare branches sticking out all around. Right in the center of those leaves, a pair of mourning doves has built a nest, and they are taking turns sitting on it.

The doves have been keeping a sharp lookout for L.C., the cat, but also have been very wary of us humans. We seem to have one big round eye that stares at them and lets out a bright flash of light, so the minute they see one of those eyes approaching, off they dart to sit on the roof or the power lines to wait until it is safe again! Gord tried every approach including sneaking around from the back of the house, all to no avail. A picture taken through the glass of our front window just didn't make him happy! So after reading on the internet of the best screens to use to fool birds, he settled on staying in his van and taking pictures through the open window. This sure wouldn't work for me, but it did for him because he attaches his digital camera to his scope so that he can get great closeups.

So here is the shot he got yesterday. Click on the picture to see how long the dove's tail is! It goes almost all the way to the edge of the picture.

(Another one for the calendar he will give us at Christmas, don't you think?!)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 07/05/2008

Puffin

Another of Gord's pictures!
(Needs to go in his "calendar file," I told him!)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 07/01/2008

New Jersey bunny

Gord has gotten awfully good with his camera. Tonight he sent me this picture that he took just a week or two ago, and I thought you might like it too!

(How about giving us calendars for Christmas, Gord??)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 06/27/2008

Gord, Jeanette, and Carol-Ann and friends in front of our house
(Picture taken in Liberia in the late 1950s)

PICTURE OF THE DAY - 06/03/2008

Jeanette, Gord, and Carol-Ann

Carol-Ann sent this picture to me today, so here we are yet again, so you can see what 25 more years have done! (Please don't look too hard!)

Here we are, middle-aged siblings, not able to believe how quickly our lives have brought us this far! Each of us has had some really tough times, it's true, but we also have so many things to be thankful for, to think back over and laugh about, to still work on improving, to encourage each other with!

(Great pic of you, Gord and Carol-Ann! Who IS that standing by you??)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 06/02/2008

Jeanette, Gord, and Carol-Ann
Taken at Gord's wedding, 1980

I am leaving yesterday's pic here a little longer so we can see the changes in 5 years! My brother Gord married Paula, my husband Barry's sister. I was one of Paula's attendants, and Carol-Ann sang during the ceremony. We don't have too many pictures like this because we have been together all too seldom in our adult lives.

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 06/01/2008

Jeanette, Gord, and Carol-Ann

I'm not sure of the date on this (approximately 1975), taken in Liberia.
Carol-Ann and I often dressed like this in a top and lappa, which is a piece of material cut the full width of a bolt of 36-inch fabric, thus it has a finished edge at the hem and waist. It is wrapped around and tucked in or fastened at the waist to form a long skirt.

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 04/29/2008

The family sedan!
This is how my brother Gord and his family used to travel when they lived in Liberia. Of course, it only worked as long as the kids were very young. Andrea is between Gord and Paula, and Stephanie and Nathaniel are on the gas tank. (Check out those bird nests in the palm trees!)

Gord--the early years!

I love this picture!

Crossing the ocean on a freighter ship at any age can be pretty exciting,

but especially when you are four years old!

Here we are--Gord, Jeanette, and Carol-Ann. Oldest to youngest, here we stand in the blazing African sun, dressed in our very finest clothes! We are king, queen, and princess, and we have the TinkerToy crowns to prove it!

Brainiest one, even in the 6th grade!

No TV, movies, or malls for us growing up! No siree! In fact, we didn't really know those things existed. Our home in the middle of the African rain forest was quite secluded from all that. Here's how we spent our evenings as teenagers.

Being a rather opinionated bunch, we acknowledged Gord as the boss, but we girls sure made him earn his title! Our dad jokingly once called us "The Hodgson Quarreltette!"

About 1976 -- Jeanette, Gord, and Carol-Ann singing for friends in our church basement. And there's Mummy in the background. Might she be nervously waiting for us to get through without messing up? Or maybe she just knew the song inside-out from all our practicing!