My Take
DiVoran Lites
Almost everyone has a deep desire for human contact! We hadn’t seen our married daughter and our married son in a long time nor their spouses whom we love. We kept in touch with Zoom, the phone, and email. It all worked well, but we were thrilled when we got a phone call to meet the four of them at Shedd’s U-Pick farm. We would do the sunflower maze. They gave us the address and said we’d meet at the farm at 10:00 A. M. on Sunday when we would normally be at church if the church were open. The digital map said it would take 26 minutes up Highway 1 to get there.
Bill and I got there first. It was a four-acre maze full of sunflowers. Some were tall, but most came only up to our waists. There was no chance of getting lost, especially when our daughter’s tall husband led the way.
We walked in joy for over an hour as happy as we could be. No one wore a mask in our party or any other. The air was fresh with a cool breeze and looking up, we saw a large flock of starlings flying over the field many times, tweeting zooming up and down. At first, I thought it was two different kinds of birds because they were mixed colors some black and some gray. The latter was smaller. But on second thought I knew it was males and females.
I don’t know why they stayed for such a long time. Maybe it was the open space over the maze, or maybe they enjoyed seeing the people as much as the people enjoyed seeing them. A drone hovered causing curiosity, then it landed in the hands of a man right there in the maze. Everyone had their idea of why it was there, but no one knew for sure.
Our son bought each of us ladies three sunflowers of our choice. That was how they came at checkout. Some were deep reddish-brown and some yellow. The bees were busy on them sometimes two at a time. Our son practically begged us to ask for the hardest ones to get to because as he said he likes to push his way through tall vegetation in a field.
Beautiful children abounded. Everyone looked so fresh and pretty and you could feel the love the visitors had for each other. When it was time to leave, we bought a pint of Orange Blossom honey made by the bees that belong to the farm.
Our next stop was the National Cemetery on Highway one. Our son had never been there, and I think he wished to honor our son-in-law by asking to see where his mother’s ashes were stored.
Our son-in-law and our daughter cared for his mother in their home with the aid of caregivers. For five years. The couple was able to keep their jobs and bring in people from hospice because even though she was not physically terminal it is the law for people with dementia to be able to receive help from Hospice. Our two managed to get out for an occasional football game or breakfast at the port. Once in a while, they could visit us to help with our computer questions. Because his dad was at the National Cemetery, his mother was too.
It’s the most beautiful cemetery I have ever seen with rolling hillocks of grass, birds, and our beautiful Florida sky. Someday… when we fly off to Heaven, Bill and I will leave our ashes there.
Our daughter got one of her sunflowers from their car to put in a provided metal vase, daughter-in-love gave one of hers and I gave one of mine. We discussed the whole subject of being there. Our Son-in-law looked up the different crosses and other small carvings on the marble fronts of the niches in the Columbarium. There are 72 to choose from. We took the opportunity to tell them which one we liked best.
Finally, we came to our house in Titusville. We had enough room on our porch to socially space us. We talked for a good long time. Billy said it was a Mother’s Day gift. It was thoroughly wonderful. Fortunately, they were vigilant to watch that I didn’t accidentally grab one of them for a hug. It was a Mother’s Day to remember.
DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn. She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”
After my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience. Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites, Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix
Old Things R New 