Dotty's Gift

Dear Diary,

I try to spend an afternoon each week with my friend Dotty who turned 95 in February and is doing very well, all things considered.   Her short term memory isn't good but she loves to recall things from the past and although I've probably heard the story countless times I love watching her light up when she tells it.

I was admiring a small sculpture she had on the porch one day and the next time I came she gave it to me.  I just love it and it now sits on the steps to my studio in one of the new gardens reminding me to look closely and be curious.

But Dotty's real gift is her friendship of 20 years.  She played the organ at my wedding in 1998, I have that old pump organ now, and the horse and carriage that carried us to and from the old meeting house left from her dooryard.  She taught me how to make pie crust the old fashioned way, haven't really mastered that, and we have quilted together.  She has knitted me socks and mittens, which I treasure, and she would always give me a jar or two of grape jelly when she made it in the fall.

So, I don't mind sitting listening to the same stories again and again.  It is my pleasure really.  She has meant so much to me over the years.  We are fortunate to have one mother in our lives...I've had four mother-figures!  I've been very blessed.

“Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation.”
– Oscar Wilde