AARP Online Community: truestarr

truestarr

Offline

Background

Gender: Female

Status: Married

Location:
Corfu
Greece

School:
Wayne State University
Thomas Jefferson College -GVSU
Marywood Academy

Work:
Reference Librarian

Hometown(s):
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Brussels, Belgium
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Izmir, Turkey
Copenhagen, Denmark
Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Corfu, Greece

My Websites:
twitter.com/truestarrus
prosperoscellphone-truestarr.blogspot.com/
truestarr.tumblr.com/

Quote:
"The important thing, kid, is that you're doing something you like to do." American Dreamer (film 1984)

My Bookmarks (8)

My Comments (8)

My Scores (20)

Game	Score
Mah Jongg Garden	299500
Mah Jongg Dimensions	21925
Sumatra	20764
Mahjongg Toy Chest	8693
Mahjongg: Mom Jongg	7357

About Me

dual nationality: US/Irish, living in Greece; trained but retired librarian, currently living happily ever after

Interests:

interested in cooking, US politics and travel; still interested in my husband after 40 years and by my three clever sons as well (though, i find i am often in thrall by my granddaughter at College in South Carolina, my 15 yr old grandson in Michigan and two year old toddler grandson in Chicago). i enjoy my garden and my dog, a Bernese named Balou, and my silly two cats, Vita and Cosmo

More About Me

My Photos (43)

ah yes, the bed... that's a good spot

dozing on the terrace

"where are the mice?"

"so, when did you plan to open the door?"

sleeping peacefully

Balou looking for rabbits in the rock garden

Balou on the steps

sitting in the shade

All My Photos

My Videos (3)

things to do in the rain

Length: 0:39

Feast of St John in Corfu

Length: 0:33

senior moment

Length: 0:04

All My Videos

My Journals (8)

Mothers and Daughters

I wrote this on my website last month while my mother was visiting us in Greece...

Mothers and Daughters

We have a history. When your mother is 83 and you are 60, we're talking a lot of years over the dam. The funny thing about our relationship is that somewhere along the lifeline it sort of froze in time.

For my mother I will always be 16.

The stories she remembers are when I was a baby and my dad and me and mom were a perfect post war family, even though she didn't speak much English. She'd met my father during the War, and they married in Belgium while he was affiliated with the Embassy. (he was a regular "joe" during the war, but was recovering from his wounds when he met her)

The world was full of hope and, after a couple of miscarriages, a child was born! I was that perfect child.

[mom and dad and precious in the middle]

When I was five, she decided to go "home" to Belgium to introduce the family to her perfect child (and said perfect child was towed along!) while my dad stayed back in the States to wait for our return.

Back in 1955, travel was via the big Ships: we traveled on the SS Sumeria. When we arrived in Brussels, it was to discover with great sadness that her father (my grandfather) had been blinded in an explosion from a still armed WW2 bomb in the train yard where he was chief of scheduling. He'd almost died but as she was pregnant with me, at the time of the accident, her family was afraid to tell her so she wouldn't lose the baby.

[me, my mom and my grandfather walking in downtown Brussels ==> note the extreme pigeon-toed stride- I have yet to abandon completely!]

Then in what can only be described as oddly typical in my family, they forgot to tell her after I was born! This meant that when we arrived, she was confronted with the new and had no time to process it or grieve! (Meanwhile of course everyone else had had plenty of time as were a little disconcerted over her reaction!)

My memories at five were similar to being tossed about in an emotional blanket. But I remember that I learned to speak French!

In 1959 my father died. Great sadness- and for my young mother, a yearning for family.

Again with the ship: this time the SS Atlantic. My memories of making it through the grieving is mixed through the veils of two cultures. It was a strange experience (with many good memories- of course, some not so good.)

[<== still toe-ing in with the feet!]

Shortly after we arrived in Belgium, the SS Atlantic was purchased by Princess Cruise lines and we had no ship to travel home on! My first airplane flight!

A great memory... but of course it still didn't make up for losing my dad.

When we returned to the U.S.A. my mother had to work. She became a successful Interior Designer, but the cost was time.

I was fortunate that she took care to give me a great education, in an all girls convent school with great nuns to teach me and a school of great companions to live with during the school year (I was lucky to be able to go home every weekend!), and in the summer, I would go to my grandparents in Belgium during my school - 3 month- long vacation. In Belgium, I had my grandparents, my great aunts and great uncles - and my mother's sister, my aunt and her husband, my uncle as well as my only slightly older guy cousin, to spend the summer with.

I became independent in many ways, (I traveled to Europe alone!) but dependent too (European mores didn't give young ladies too much freedom even in the 60's!). Fortunately my cousin was male and we could get away with more things together than either one of us could do on our own!

Meanwhile, my mother often treated me like a sister through my teen years, but then- of course- she'd pull rank (as parents do...)

ah we both have many memories of the sixties!

[can you tell my mother is terrified of heights?? ah the things she'd do if I "dared" her...]

Often on my weekends off she'd have to work and we'd combine a mini-holiday when her "job" had finished.

These years to my mother were profoundly memorable, though for me it was so much more about what was going on outside our lives together. For her, each moment we spent together became a book of memories, shelved with all the others... our history in stone.

We are currently - as we do each time we're together- now reliving all those memories of time and place.

Not too much to do with Villa Methavrio or Greece... but Oh well!

Added: November 9, 2009
Views: 99 | Comments: 2 | Bookmarks: 0

All My Journals

Comments (46)

RockyMountainGirl says:

I never do this. I never leave exactly the same message to each one of my friends but I'm going to do it today. In the last month I have heard of two friends who have experienced a TIA (commonly known as a mini-stroke). One is a man in his 40s and the other a woman in her 50s. In honor of these dear people and all the loved ones my family has lost to heart disease I am sending this same message to each of my friends.

Jcofla has a profile here on AARP that you need to see. Please, take just a few minutes to read John's journal "Breakfast in Bed" and to watch three short videos about the American Heart Association's "Go Red For Women Day". Then take another minute to tell John thank you! You can find his profile here:

http://www.aarp.org/community/jcofla

Posted: January 29, 2010 9:08AM EST