December 16. 2008 Family Update and Call to Prayer

To our family and friends,
For Anya, Masha and myself, it was a sort of an emotional roller coaster of a weekend, but as I thought about it in the middle of the night (woke up at 1:30 and last time I saw the clock before falling back to sleep was 3:30), kind of a snapshot of this last month and a half. In many ways we are trudging through, in other ways we are flying through.
Yesterday we continued Diane’s loving tradition of visiting and putting blankets on her family graves; for reasons of comfort, the girls and myself changed the tradition a little by putting on wreaths. We did go to the 7 grave sites in 3 different cemeteries (including Mishna, her dog), but we could not do what Diane did. In the wintry cold & windy cemeteries she put together blankets by tying large boughs together, and then decorating these created blankets with such loving care. Though we did not do the boughs being made into blankets, the girls and I did do the decorating of the wreaths, so we kept much of the tradition. We did buy a pre-built but undecorated blanket for Diane which we decorated. The cemetery blankets were just one more manifestation of Diane’s loving ways. Though none of us wanted to spend a few hours in the wintry cemeteries, the decorating of the blankets (wreaths) was something all 3 of us wanted to do. Can’t say we enjoyed it, but I felt good doing what Diane would do out of love. And of course it was emotionally difficult for the 3 of us to do to her and her grave what she so lovingly did to her deceased family members each year.
Then in the evening we decorated our tree. Diane would not let an ornament be placed on the tree without telling the story of where it came from, from whom it came from and when it became part of the tree. You could hear in her voice the appreciation she had for all of the ornaments, especially the ones given to her by her family and friends. And the ones she had purchased or made herself – always something interesting to say about why she has it. The wonderful memories these ornaments invoked in her she was able to share with us. There is no way I could do that, but the ornament stories I remembered, the kids heard about again this Christmas and they enjoyed it. Anya and Masha did much more decorating than I did. They worked through my preparing for dinner, a call with a friend and the beginnings of a visit with Catherine. They enjoyed putting the ornaments on the tree and remarking about the ones that they realllllly liked, which seemed like most of them. Even having experienced the girls’ joy and excitement of last evening, I was surprised this morning that Masha said she had a good time yesterday. This was unsolicited from me, really out of the blue and so I know she wasn’t just saying this to please me.
That is what I mean by trudging and flying. In the late morning, early afternoon she was silently crying and sullen going cemetery to cemetery and then in the evening truly enjoying the decorating of our Christmas tree. I have to think that the Christmas / New Year season will continue the roller coaster ride for Diane’s brothers and sisters, the girls and myself. I did say to their aunt Catherine last night, I just think Masha and Anya are doing remarkably well, and she agreed. Thank you for your many thoughts and prayers as we continue to move forward with our lives. Let us pray for one another during this holy season.
When you get the chance please browse through her place in the Newsday Guest Book and if you are so inclined, please enter in your own memories, your thoughts. I find them tremendously rewarding to read and in the future I am sure the girls will also find it rewarding as they read about the place their mom had in so many lives.
http://www.legacy.com/Newsday/GB/GuestbookView.aspx?PersonId=119709141
Love, George