At Home With Flashhbacks ~ Part 1

Allan and I drove home to see Mom and Dad on April 13th, 2017, with our daughter Jenny and her family, husband Chris, and their kids Addie and Gunnar.  The farm looks much like it has for many years, except the house, which has always been painted a shade of blue, was recently resided with a new tan siding.  This aerial view of the place is framed and prominent in the fireplace room just off the kitchen.  I took a picture of the picture.

FLASHBACK.  I see this photo from May 2010 Mother’s Day gathering with my parents, and my daughter Jenny and her husband Chris and family were at home with me and Allan.  Look at our little grandchildren Addie and Gunnar with their great grandparents.  Everyone was seven years younger than they are today.

On April 13th, 2017, tt was Holy Thursday afternoon of Easter Week.  Gumnar and Addie are now 12 and 14, my parents are now 92 and 90, and in the middle our daughter Jenny never ages.  Mom loves her collection of plates and memorabilia from their many travels around the world — too numerous to list here but includes China, several countries of South America, the Holy Land, European countries including Belgium and Norway, the homelands of their ancestors, France, England, and Hawaii and Alaska and the list goes on.

Mom and Dad have enjoyed this room and the warmth of the fireplace on cool winter evenings for many years, each in their own easy chairs, either watching a favorite movie or television show or listening to Molly B and old time music.  In recent years, when they didn’t get out to ballrooms, they got up and danced together around the kitchen island.  See that aerial photo above the fireplace?

As Mom walked through the kitchen, she felt the familiar life it once held and her tears gushed, but dried up as fast as they had arrived, and she moved on.  I’d say that’s the story of my mother’s life.  Mom got her big new kitchen, family room, and fireplace in 1973, which means she had good use of it with her growing family for 45 years.

FLASHBACK.  In 2007 — ten years ago — I see the fireplace room looking much the same, except the Wall of Plates and Pictures wasn’t finished yet.  That’s Sharon (my brother Paul’s wife) and Suzanne (my brother Matt’s wife) on the left, with Jen Ellingson and our son Nick who became Mr. and Mrs. Orsen that fall, on September 22nd, 2007.

FLASHBACK:  I see the evergreen trees around the house are still small, and also the line of trees along the “old driveway.”  The number of grain bins also isn’t complete at this time.

FLASHBACK:  I see my brother Louie had the honors of carving the Thanksgiving Turkey.

FLASHACK:  I see Mom dishing out ice cream to grandchildren and great grandchildren, this in 2007.

FLASHBACK:  I see Mom and her three daughters in her favorite spot.  It was March 2012.

We stepped into the dining room where the walls have been painted various colors over the years and where the floors have gone from hardwood to carpet.  Newest item is the “Stained Glass” wallhanging Mom made at their Texas home one year.

FLASHBACK:  I see that quilted wallhanging in their beautiful home at the Alamo Country Club in Alamo, Texas, where they watched wild rabbits in the backyard race back and forth across the field, like they were going someplace.

This handkerchief drawer dresser has been part of the dining room, on one wall or another, for years.  Mom purchased it long ago and, I believe, refinished it herself.  See that family photo?  It brings back good memories of a big celebration.

FLASHBACK:  I see the big celebration at the house in honor of Mom and Dad’s 60th wedding anniversary in May of 2007.  It was a grand occasion with all seven of us kids and our kids and our grandchildren, at the time, in the picture.  They also celebrated their 25th, 40th, 50th, 65th, and soon their 70th.

Dad knew I wanted to see the house before it would be changed and so we went upstairs to the bedrooms.  Long ago “the boys’ room” became Mom’s sewing (and storage) room.  Dad said he recently changed all the bedding upstairs and washed the sheets and put the beds back together again, by himself.  Why?  “So they would be clean,” he said.  When I was a little girl, that cross above the bed hung in the hallway downstairs.  It contains all the things you need for the Sacrament of the Last Rites.  That dresser on the right was part of Mom and Dad’s original bedroom set.  Dad had one too.

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This is why it came to be called the Mom’s Sewing Room.

FLASHBACK:  I see Mom sewing and stitching her quilts these past many years, including when we visited at their home in Texas, above in January 2006.  When we were little, Mom made her three girls matching shorts and tops.  She made us dresses and she made many of her own square dancing dresses.

FLASHBACK:  I see the quilt that I chose, and I have it on the bed in “Nick’s room” at our home in Victoria.

FLASHBACK:  I see the quilt that Mom gave our daughter Jenny for her wedding in 2002.

This bed in the “Girls Room” is where the three of us sisters slept until we got too big.  I remember Mom doing the Paint By Number prints.  Asked Dad, “How did she have time to do that?”  I reminded him that Mom was never too fond of TV so at night she’d sit at the dining room table and paint while we laid on the floor in the living room and watched television.

This is the wallpaper in the bathroom of the “New Bedroom” upstairs.  I pointed out that the little old man and lady are still on their way to the outhouse in their pajamas, after all these years.  Said Dad, “I’ve never seen them before.”

Allan and I have slept in the New Bed in the New Bedroom.  The cedar chest used to be in the hallway on top of the old stairs

Then Dad and I stepped together into the loft where they’ve had so many Christmas parties and we played cards and opened presents and played pool.  Mom and Dad’s little grandsons never did stop running around and up and down.

FLASHBACK:  I see some of Mom and Dad’s great grandchildren playing pool, including little Gunnar and Addie Norgaard in front.  It was May 20th, 2007, Mom and Dad’s 60th anniversary.

FLASHBACK:  I see Dad and Father Elstan playing pool and laughing in 1996.  See that wall of photos in back?

It’s the seven of us kids, and we’ve been hanging around all this time, in the same spot, for a very long time.

Said Dad, “I didn’t really know what a nice big place we had until we left.”

FLASHBACK:  I see my Grandma Opdahl with us for some of our Christmases in the loft.  This was 1981.

Jenny told Addie and Gunnar about good memories of family Christmas gatherings in her Grandma and Grandpa’s loft.

FLASHBACK:  I see Jenny giving attention to her little first cousins at Christmas 1984.

FLASHBACK:  I see our son Nick (far left) hanging out with boy cousins at Christmas 1984.

FLASHBACK:  I see Mom and Dad posing with grandchildren at Christmas 1991.

I remember when Mom and Dad brought back that reindeer hide from their trip to Norway.

FLASHBACK:  I see Dad sitting in his favorite corner of the loft.  Check out that red phone on the wall.  It was before cordless phones and certainly before cell phones.  It was Christmas 1983.

On the wall above the loft stairway is a wood plaque I made for Mom and Dad one Christmas, bearing the same Belgian Coat of Arms that they saw on the original Claeys farm on one of their trips to Belgium.  That farm is now under water.

FLASHBACK:  I see our little Jenny watching her Grandpa Joe open that gift at Christmas 1982.

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CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE AT HOME WITH FLASHBACKS-PART 2

FLASHBACK:  I see Dad playing pool in the loft at Christmas 1981.

FLASHBACK:  I see Mom and Dad sitting next to each other in the same corner

This time it was Christmas 1991.

FLASHBACK:  I see Mom and Dad sitting in a different spot in the loft at Christmas 1994.

FLASHBACK:  I see Mom and Dad at Christmas 1994 with their grandchildren and some of their spouses at the time, and also baby Carly, their first great grandchild.

FLASHBACK:  I see us taking family pictures at Christmas 1988.

FLASHBACK:  I see four generations of “oldest girls” in March 2015, Dad’s 90th birthday.