Thursday, November 04, 2004
THE END OF AUGUST....1982
The “decision” didn’t last very long. When we came home and looked at our 65 x 12-foot mobile home it looked tiny. It was amazing how much larger the 70 x 14-foot looked. The salesman gave us credit for the same amount of money we paid for our first one which meant we lived in it 11-years for free. The difference was very reasonable and the deal was struck for it to be delivered in a few days.
Uncle Tom and aunt Inabelle were still visiting at mom’s and they were all as excited as we were. The selling point for Warren was the fact it had a large bathroom in it with a garden bath tub. He had ample room to sit on the edge and swing his leg over, thereby easing into the tub with no problem. There was also a shower which he hoped to be able to use.
The day the new home was to be delivered arrived and we made the effort to pack breakable things as they had to move the one mobile home out of the way for the other to be put in place. Frankly, it was a huge mess. I don’t know why I thought it wouldn’t be so much work since we were moving from one to the other. One still had to be emptied of every item and the other filled. It was an endless task. If you had to move everything from toothpicks to bedding and furniture to groceries, where would you start? When would you be finished? How long would it take? Believe me…..a very long time and with back breaking effort.
Finally, all was in place in our new home. Mom and aunt Inabelle washed and dried all the dishes so they would be freshly done for the new cupboards. The electricity and water had been changed over and our home was once more functional. The electrician hooked up our AC and we thought we were in heaven. To think I had canned all of those green beans in a kitchen that had temperatures over 100* with smaller space to work in.
With everything in place, mom treated all of us to dinner out, to celebrate the end of the moving. It had been a busy few days and uncle Tom thoughtfully took pictures to chronicle the ‘old’ moving out and the ‘new’ moving in. Uncle Tom and aunt Inabelle left us on the morning of the 24th and mom had to go back to Springfield for her 5-week check up after her cataract surgery on the 27th. She got a complete dismissal….no more eye drops or anything. We had a nice lunch before coming home and were glad that mom came through the cataract ordeal without any problem.
August had been a very busy month. Summer always brought friends and family for visits and with me working 3-days a week we were very scheduled much of the time. It didn’t work out for Warren to use the shower, which was his preference. It was a standard size and didn’t have room or anywhere to attach bars to hang on to. Standing on one leg and trying to bathe was impossible and after a practice run, he gave it up.
I continued teaching my Monday night Bible Study Class and taking care of Jennifer and Jonathan when Becky needed a “sitter.” The rest of the summer was spent repositioning some of the walks, shrubbery, grass and the under skirting around the mobile home. The past two years had been a struggle with Warren’s and mom’s health ordeals and the obligations we had at church. There wasn’t much time to waste or even to keep up, it seemed.
When things were quiet, either at work or at home, I would often write poetry or an essay about anything I was feeling at the time. It has always been important to me to sort things out, analyze and regroup. Writing was an avenue to express the deep feelings I had as I traveled along, for I wanted to capture the moment…… to remember that inner Esther….the invisible part of who I was and am…the part of Esther that only peeks out occasionally before disappearing into activity again. It is in those times…..that I see God’s will for me more clearly……
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
Uncle Tom and aunt Inabelle were still visiting at mom’s and they were all as excited as we were. The selling point for Warren was the fact it had a large bathroom in it with a garden bath tub. He had ample room to sit on the edge and swing his leg over, thereby easing into the tub with no problem. There was also a shower which he hoped to be able to use.
The day the new home was to be delivered arrived and we made the effort to pack breakable things as they had to move the one mobile home out of the way for the other to be put in place. Frankly, it was a huge mess. I don’t know why I thought it wouldn’t be so much work since we were moving from one to the other. One still had to be emptied of every item and the other filled. It was an endless task. If you had to move everything from toothpicks to bedding and furniture to groceries, where would you start? When would you be finished? How long would it take? Believe me…..a very long time and with back breaking effort.
Finally, all was in place in our new home. Mom and aunt Inabelle washed and dried all the dishes so they would be freshly done for the new cupboards. The electricity and water had been changed over and our home was once more functional. The electrician hooked up our AC and we thought we were in heaven. To think I had canned all of those green beans in a kitchen that had temperatures over 100* with smaller space to work in.
With everything in place, mom treated all of us to dinner out, to celebrate the end of the moving. It had been a busy few days and uncle Tom thoughtfully took pictures to chronicle the ‘old’ moving out and the ‘new’ moving in. Uncle Tom and aunt Inabelle left us on the morning of the 24th and mom had to go back to Springfield for her 5-week check up after her cataract surgery on the 27th. She got a complete dismissal….no more eye drops or anything. We had a nice lunch before coming home and were glad that mom came through the cataract ordeal without any problem.
August had been a very busy month. Summer always brought friends and family for visits and with me working 3-days a week we were very scheduled much of the time. It didn’t work out for Warren to use the shower, which was his preference. It was a standard size and didn’t have room or anywhere to attach bars to hang on to. Standing on one leg and trying to bathe was impossible and after a practice run, he gave it up.
I continued teaching my Monday night Bible Study Class and taking care of Jennifer and Jonathan when Becky needed a “sitter.” The rest of the summer was spent repositioning some of the walks, shrubbery, grass and the under skirting around the mobile home. The past two years had been a struggle with Warren’s and mom’s health ordeals and the obligations we had at church. There wasn’t much time to waste or even to keep up, it seemed.
When things were quiet, either at work or at home, I would often write poetry or an essay about anything I was feeling at the time. It has always been important to me to sort things out, analyze and regroup. Writing was an avenue to express the deep feelings I had as I traveled along, for I wanted to capture the moment…… to remember that inner Esther….the invisible part of who I was and am…the part of Esther that only peeks out occasionally before disappearing into activity again. It is in those times…..that I see God’s will for me more clearly……
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
