At Home With Flashbacks-Part 3

FLASHBACK:  Mom and Dad’s 50the wedding anniversary seems like only yesterday, but it was in fact 20 years ago already.  I see us posing on that occasion in 1997 for a family picture out in their yard by the evergreen trees.

I’m pleased to have now walked through the house with Mom and Dad before it changes and I’m happy for all the good memories.  As we drive off the yard, I turn around to snap one more picture of the house in its new color and the new deck.

FLASHBACK:  I see the house in blue with the large shade tree still in place.  When I was a little girl, the house was surrounded by elm trees that gave us much shade during the hot months of summer when there was no AC.

FLASHBACK:  I see Mom and Dad on the deck, and I see Allan and Jenny and Nick, too.  My brothers often manned the barbecue grill.

FLASHBACK:  I see our family sitting on the deck in the spring — like for Mother’s Day, when  the sun wasn’t yet so hot.  There was always plenty of seating both inside and outside the house.

FLASHBACK:  I see the red carpet that Mom and Dad purchased and rolled out for us in the garage whenever extra seating was needed for big family gatherings.  Setup and cleanup was a big deal for them.

After we walked through the house, it was close to supper time so we took Mom and Dad to Applebees in Marshall.

FLASHBACK:  I see us sitting together with Jenny and Chris (and Addie and Gunnar) and son Nick and Jen Ellingson (Nick’s wife-to-be) at Applebees down in Texas for Mom’s 80th birthday in January 2007.

FLASHBACK:  I see us sitting together for dinner at my home in Victoria.  This time it was May 2005, the dedication Sunday of our new church at St. Victoria.

FLASHBACK:  I see us sitting together for dinner with Jenny and family at their first home in Tioga, North Dakota, on Tourning Street, when Addie made her First Holy Communion in May 2011. 

After Applebees in Marshall, we all got together at the AmericInn in Marshall, in the suite that Allan and I usually reserve when we go home to see Mom and Dad and everybody.  It’s very familiar to Addie and Gunnar, as is the swimming pool.

FLASHBACK:  I see another time we were at the AmericInn in Marshall — when the suite must not have been available.  It was for Father’s Day 2005.  I see my dad, husband, my little brother, my son in law, my son.

FLASHBACK:  I see in that same hotel room Mom holding Jenny’s little Baby Gunnar who was not quite six months old.  The occasion was our being home for  Father’s Day 2005.

FLASHBACK:  I see us in a hotel room down in Texas for Mom’s 80th birthday in January 2007.  I don’t remember the name of the hotel, but my brother Bernie and his family also stayed there.  I remember it was cold, windy, and wet.  The best time to visit Mom and Dad in Texas was in March, but Mom was born in January.

My little sister Nancy and her husband Steve (from nearby Ghent) also joined us for wine and snacks.

As our fun evening at the AmericInn in Marshall came to a close, Dad and Mom drove back to their apartment at Boulder Estates.  It’s nice that everything is convenient.  My sister Nancy works in Marshall, and my brother Paul and Sharon live in Marshall and it’s only five miles from my brother Bernie and my brother Louie.

The next morning, which happened to be Good Friday before Easter, Allan and Jenny and I were first up and we drove to Boulder Estates to meet Mom and Dad for prayers at the place.

After the Rosary and the Stations of the Cross, led by Father Paul Wolfe, the priest at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Marshall, we drove back to the AmericInn to pick up the sleeping trio — Christopher, Addie, and Gunnar — and then stop by to visit with Mom and Dad for a while longer at their apartment before we drove back to Victoria.

I have many good pictures of my kids with their Grandma Betty and Grandpa Joe Claeys. 

The four guys that morning before we left Marshall:  Allan, Chris, Gunnar, Dad.  In a manner of speaking, four generations.

The four gals that same morning:  me. Mom, Jenny, Addie — each of us the oldest of four different generations.

The four blood related genereations — Gunnar, Jenny, Dad, Mom, Me, and Addie.  God has shined upon us.

Dad and Mom then gave us a short tour of their new home at Boulder Estates.  Since they live on the ground level first floor, everything is nearby and convenient, including this fireplace area which gets decorated for the season, as you can see.

Their dining room is also just down the hall from their apartment, and they get to sit down and order from a menu. 

As we continued with the short tour near their apartment, Dad steered us into the Exercise Room which was already familiar to him and where he flipped a button on a boom box to play polka music and he asked Mom to dance.

It was amazing and I could hardly believe it.  God is good to them, to me, to us, and I captured several minutes on video.

I have watched my parents dance all my life.  They’re the best on the floor.

FLASHBACK:  I see Mom and Dad dancing at their favorite places in the Rio Grande Valley including Pepe’s on the River, and we got to visit Pepe’s almost every time we visited them in Texas.  This was February 1995.

Sometimes their dances were in denim and at other times they flowed with elegance.

FLASHBACK:  I see Mom and Dad dancing together every time we got near an old tyme band in Texas.

Love you, Mom and Dad.  Happy 70th.

Email:  Sue@PrintsPublishing.com

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And so it becomes time once again to say goodbye and head back to Victoria with the kids.  Seems we’re always saying hello and goodbye to each other.

Others at our impromptu gathering were Jenny and Chris, of course, and my nephew Billy and his wife Missy.  Others at the hotel with us were my little brother Paul and his wife Sharon, and also Billy and Missy’s youngest son Wyatt.

FLASHBACK. I see a great picture of my dad and my daughter in May 2007 — the 60th Anniversary.