EmmaSage: The Greatest Gift........

I've been missing my Mother greatly these days. It is not like I don't miss her everyday....I have since the moment she left her earthly bounds....it is just that some days it covers me like a veil.....this heavy feeling......this profound sadness.

My Mother and I talked everyday of my life.......well, as close as everyday as you could get. There were only a few times in my life that we went a few days without talking to each other. On her trips home to Ireland [and the cost of a call prohibited our talking]....a few days on my honeymoon [yes, I did talk to my Mother on my honeymoon ~ and I'm still married [coming up on 20 years this next anniversary]. The same with my sister. My sister talked to my Mother everyday....and she talks to me almost everyday [we have our whole life]. So........you can see why I miss her greatly.

This past week, every time the phone rang I could not shake the feeling that it was Mom calling. Rationally, I knew it was not her....but in my heart, it so ached that it would be her.

.....and this is my rambling way ~ which brings me to a quote she always would say to me.......

"The Greatest Gift you can give a child.....is to allow them to be children for as long as possible"

I do know my Mother had a magical childhood, as she told me stories of Ireland and I always carried away from those stories an awe for the 'fairyland' that was her home. She could weave the most incredible stories....and I have grown up believing in fairies and little people and banshees.......

My mothers life was good, but hard. She worked as a barmaid by the age of 12. Most children of her generation did what they could to help out their families....there was no thought about it......you worked, either on the farm or in town. Some of my most favorite stories from my Mother were about her walks home from town.

But I fully understand her quote, now as a Mother.....and from the perspective of a young girl who was given that 'gift' of being allowed to be a child as long as possible....and of dreaming and believing.

So I have been raising my own children, just as my Mother raised the four of us. With lots and lots of love.......with shelter and protection of their childhoods.......as they grow up way to fast as it is.

Which brings me to the real reason of this ramble......to share a few pictures of Emma Sage's afternoon this week.

We made boats. We used aluminum foil loaf pans, chopsticks and card stock paper.

We carried them to the river and sailed them down stream.

A moment....one little, precious moment of Emma Sage's childhood. A Childhood that I pray lasts a long, long time. She is my last little baby....her older sisters are 16 today [Happy Sweet 16 Miss Greta] and her Nini will be 18 in 10 days. They are growing up on me....but I know that they cherished the innocence of their childhood.....a gift that I protected for as long as I could. But Father Time has a way of breaking through that protection and carrying them from childhood to young adulthood. It is a wonderful step....but one that also brings about a bittersweet feeling....as you pray that the fairies, little people, banshees, magic and spirit of their youth stays with them all the rest of their days....if only as a smile and a memory that reappears as they think of their Nana and of me.

So, again I rambled....but as promised, pictures of Emma Sage on a summer day during her sixth summer.

Walking to the river with our boats.....