1st Thanksgiving without Mum Mum
Today marks the first Thanksgiving my family and I will celebrate without my grandmother, whom I call Mum Mum. She was truly the matriarch of our family and its true backbone. There has never been a Thanksgiving I have sent without her. Last year, as she laid in the ICU of University of Maryland hospital, I sat with her for hours on Thanksgiving as she laid their attempting to recuperate and unable to speak or fully communicate. I sang, I prayed and I reflected.
I felt so lost and out of place with no place I really wanted to go. Unlike many others in my family, my holiday was always with her. I never really associated with my mother's side of the family and if I did it would be early in the day, then I would go to her house for dinner. Others have had Thanksgiving with their other sides of the family, or even hosted their own Thanksgiving, but i always spent it at her house.
So when God called her home this past April, a chapter in our lives closed. Her house, where we have gathered on so many occasions, will never be the same. Because she is gone.
Thanksgiving meals with Mum Mum were all her. When you walked in the front door, the heat would hit your face, the smells fill your nose and you knew it was going to be a good day. When we were younger, we had to eat in the kitchen The older ones got to eat at the table in the living room, and the older older ones ate in the dining room, a place only reserved for Thanksgiving. Lol.
As we got older, it felt like the house got smaller. Lol. I have no clue how we all fit into that house. Well, they dd raise 14 children in that house, so imagine what Thanksgiving looked with everyone's families.
As with many families, as we got older, people started trailing off and doing their own thing, for various reasons. Of course my grandmother would have loved for her entire family to be together, but things happen, people change, whatever. I never got involved in all that. Because I knew there was only one place I wanted to be on Thanksgiving, Mum Mum's house.
I miss her everyday. I don't talk about it, but so many things make me think of her. Not many more than a holiday like this. I really miss her.
But this year, my mother, sisters and I will begin our own tradition, by actually cooking and eating together. Its not the same as Mum Mum's, and I'm scared that my sister is going mess up this mac and cheese, but its all good. Lol.
So while I will never forget her and will be thinking about her all day, I thank God for her memory and the time he blessed us to have with her. I hope you all cherish your family members, especially your elders. Cherish each day you have with them.
I felt so lost and out of place with no place I really wanted to go. Unlike many others in my family, my holiday was always with her. I never really associated with my mother's side of the family and if I did it would be early in the day, then I would go to her house for dinner. Others have had Thanksgiving with their other sides of the family, or even hosted their own Thanksgiving, but i always spent it at her house.
So when God called her home this past April, a chapter in our lives closed. Her house, where we have gathered on so many occasions, will never be the same. Because she is gone.
Thanksgiving meals with Mum Mum were all her. When you walked in the front door, the heat would hit your face, the smells fill your nose and you knew it was going to be a good day. When we were younger, we had to eat in the kitchen The older ones got to eat at the table in the living room, and the older older ones ate in the dining room, a place only reserved for Thanksgiving. Lol.
As we got older, it felt like the house got smaller. Lol. I have no clue how we all fit into that house. Well, they dd raise 14 children in that house, so imagine what Thanksgiving looked with everyone's families.
As with many families, as we got older, people started trailing off and doing their own thing, for various reasons. Of course my grandmother would have loved for her entire family to be together, but things happen, people change, whatever. I never got involved in all that. Because I knew there was only one place I wanted to be on Thanksgiving, Mum Mum's house.
I miss her everyday. I don't talk about it, but so many things make me think of her. Not many more than a holiday like this. I really miss her.
But this year, my mother, sisters and I will begin our own tradition, by actually cooking and eating together. Its not the same as Mum Mum's, and I'm scared that my sister is going mess up this mac and cheese, but its all good. Lol.
So while I will never forget her and will be thinking about her all day, I thank God for her memory and the time he blessed us to have with her. I hope you all cherish your family members, especially your elders. Cherish each day you have with them.
