Daughter Erin has a birthday today (an unbirthday, she calls it, as she doesn't much like the marching along of years any more than I do). I won't tell her age, but I will say that she is my #2 child, born this date in 1957.
Sweet O is her nickname. Her brother Sean, older by 14 months, couldn't pronounce "Erin" and called her "Oneen" - and Sweet O simply morphed out of that.
She is the child who called lipstick "Lik-stick" and perfume "Spiffroom." She is the one who interrogated me one day about angels, wanting to know if they all had wings, if the wings had feathers, did they flap, were they white -- and most specifically, did angels fly vertically or horizontally. I was sorry I ever got involved with that question. She was the persistent child who one day while we were in the car insisted on my acknowledging that she had seen a horse. I was busy talking to her dad and here's how the conversation went: Erin: Horse, horse, horse mommy, mommy, horse, horse, mommy horse. HORSE! MOMMY HORSE! HORSE! HORSE! ad infinitim. I finally stopped talking to her dad and acknowledged her: "Erin, did you see a horse?" Erin: "No."
This is the child who spilled a package of Coco Puffs on the kitchen floor, which just happend to be a brown speckled asphalt tile floor. I grabbed the broom to sweep them up and watched while Erin went into a full-blown tantrum because she wanted to eat every one of them.
But she is also the child who grew into a beautiful young teenager with a singing voice, inherited from her father, that those angels would have been hard to duplicate. She was always in choirs, one of the best of the singers.
She grew up to be the kind of grandma that her own grandmother (my mother) was, a grandma second to none.
And she is a wonderful daughter, watching me like a hawk, making sure I take care of myself. She can do this because she lives near to me. I would love to post a picture of this daughter as she appears now, but I really think she will enjoy most of all my posting of her in action. If I need help, she is the one I call. This picture - she's working on getting my broadband connection up and running - is my tribute to a daughter who is turning another year older today.
1 comment:
This is my first time visiting your blog. It wont be the last either! From what I remember, you have captured Erin perfectly! I never had the chance to "hang out" with the older kids. I had to hear my stories 2nd hand. Cindy would tell funny stories and I would think, this family cant be that happy can they? Guess it was fact! Thanks for the laugh today!
Nancy Hodges Meewis
Post a Comment