TODAY IS THE DAY!
It's been nearly two years since my last post and since then I've sat at a keyboard typing my thoughts and then erasing them at least a couple dozen times. I kept thinking to myself, today is the day I pick it back up.. start writing something for fun, for me. The whole reason I started writing in the beginning was so I'd have an outlet for some of my thoughts. Well...
As I sit here now, I'm experiencing what I can only assume is writer's block. Just when I'm finally ready to start writing again, my brain just ceases to function.
Geeze.
I can hear my husband now saying that it's very uncharacteristic of me not to have something to say. "You're a Tuell" he'd say. And I guess that's true because even as I type this, I've thought of the perfect topic: Tuells
My mamaw, Louise Tuell, is 83 years old and the mother of just under a dozen children, two boys and nine girls; Carole, Patty, Vickie, Debbie, Jody, Rex, Lisa, Bo, Jeanie, Barbara, and Billie. Papaw passed away in 1989 so mamaw's been the focal point of my maternal family for 25 years. My house was right behind hers growing up so I literally grew up in her backyard. As a kid, I can remember getting off the bus at her house after school and how she'd send us 'over the hill' when we found her snack cakes/cookies. Her claim to fame was never cooking or sewing like most grandmas...it was her back porch.
I can't even begin to count the number of times I was on that porch. I'd water her flowers for her or lay on my belly with my Barbies and play for hours while my mom and her sisters gathered to visit with Mamaw. When I became an adult and mother to my own children, I would bring them over to do the same things. They would play and we would all drink Diet Coke and catch up on the latest news/info/gossip.
With so many women in the family, it was typically boisterous (and sometimes loud) with everyone trying to be the first to share their opinion. Some talked over others. Others whispered in secret. There were engagement and pregnancy announcements- divorces too. Common town gossip and dirty family laundry. So many secrets and stories and memories were shared on that porch.
Last year, Mamaw went into a nursing facility for rehab after she had some health complications. At the end of her rehabilitation, she decided that she would spend the upcoming winter months in the nursing home so that she would be well cared for and warm (the woman was NEVER warm enough). Well, winter turned into Spring and Mamaw was still at the nursing facility. I think she realized in her time there just how much she was depending on others to care for her. She is now at the facility indefinitely by her choice.
Now our gatherings are smaller, quieter, and shared sitting on her single twin bed. It makes me wonder though.. what will happen to the porch?
As I sit here now, I'm experiencing what I can only assume is writer's block. Just when I'm finally ready to start writing again, my brain just ceases to function.
Geeze.
I can hear my husband now saying that it's very uncharacteristic of me not to have something to say. "You're a Tuell" he'd say. And I guess that's true because even as I type this, I've thought of the perfect topic: Tuells
My mamaw, Louise Tuell, is 83 years old and the mother of just under a dozen children, two boys and nine girls; Carole, Patty, Vickie, Debbie, Jody, Rex, Lisa, Bo, Jeanie, Barbara, and Billie. Papaw passed away in 1989 so mamaw's been the focal point of my maternal family for 25 years. My house was right behind hers growing up so I literally grew up in her backyard. As a kid, I can remember getting off the bus at her house after school and how she'd send us 'over the hill' when we found her snack cakes/cookies. Her claim to fame was never cooking or sewing like most grandmas...it was her back porch.
I can't even begin to count the number of times I was on that porch. I'd water her flowers for her or lay on my belly with my Barbies and play for hours while my mom and her sisters gathered to visit with Mamaw. When I became an adult and mother to my own children, I would bring them over to do the same things. They would play and we would all drink Diet Coke and catch up on the latest news/info/gossip.
With so many women in the family, it was typically boisterous (and sometimes loud) with everyone trying to be the first to share their opinion. Some talked over others. Others whispered in secret. There were engagement and pregnancy announcements- divorces too. Common town gossip and dirty family laundry. So many secrets and stories and memories were shared on that porch.
Last year, Mamaw went into a nursing facility for rehab after she had some health complications. At the end of her rehabilitation, she decided that she would spend the upcoming winter months in the nursing home so that she would be well cared for and warm (the woman was NEVER warm enough). Well, winter turned into Spring and Mamaw was still at the nursing facility. I think she realized in her time there just how much she was depending on others to care for her. She is now at the facility indefinitely by her choice.
Now our gatherings are smaller, quieter, and shared sitting on her single twin bed. It makes me wonder though.. what will happen to the porch?
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