It has been a long
three months and one day since I have put an entry in my blog. Those three months have whizzed by very
quickly. I have been so busy
juggling a full time job that includes frequent out of town travel along with
taking care of my mother, another new part-time career that I have taken on and
of course my brand new role of being a grandma that I can barely find time to
write for pleasure. Add that to a
plethora of events to plan and attend, for
instance-
Lexi’s Baby Naming; a mini
family vacation to celebrate Mark’s 60th birthday; the
Jewish holidays; moving my younger daughter, Kimberly, into her own apartment
in Brooklyn and my mom’s 90th birthday party
Hence, because
there are only 24 hours in a day and I need to sleep for at least 6 of them,
the one thing I relinquished was my passion—writing. The funny thing is, I am always chronicling a narrative in
my head and at one point I even wrote some of this in my work notebook while on
a plane 20,000 feet up above the earth. I am glad I did, though, because I was able to use some of it
for this entry.
It has been a
whirlwind of celebrations and family get-togethers, one after the other. As each day passes, our little Lexi Grace
grows more delightful and being her grandma fills me with more joy than I could
ever even attempt to describe.
Last year around this time, she was just merely the size of a pea and I
didn’t even know she existed. This
year she is the center of my world.
Her smile takes my breath away and makes me verklempt (Yiddish- meaning
“choked with emotion.”).
Literally, she will look at me and her innocent toothless grin grips me
right in my solar plexus. But my
most favorite thing about her is her eyes- the most mesmerizing blue I have
ever seen. They remind me of my
father, who had blue eyes the color of the sky. Lexi’s eyes are different; they are the color of the ocean.
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| Lexi Blue Eyes |
As I recall, my
last entry, on August 11, ended at the point we were to meet my aunt and female
cousins from my mother’s side of the family for the Waltzer Ladies reunion. Lexi was only 2 and ½ months old
then. Lindsay drove us into Manhattan
to Carmine’s in the center of the theatre district. Nineteen of us took up a large corner of the restaurant on
the second floor. Getting to the
second floor was a whole event in itself- we had to take an hydraulic elevator
in two shifts- first me, Lindsay and Lexi in the stroller, then Kim, my mom and
her walker.
There’s something
about my mom’s family that fills me with warmth and makes me feel like I really
belong somewhere. We are like a
quilt made up of unique patches that are distinctly different yet connected by
something stronger than the thread that holds it together. It does not matter if we haven’t seen
each other in years or months, when we do get together there is no mistaking
that we are related- not so much by what we look like but rather by our spirit
and joy of our shared history. There
we were, oblivious to a restaurant full of people, four generations of hugging,
kissing, laughing, joking, talking and of course, eating. Lexi got passed around from generation
to generation, from cousin to cousin, from her great, great Aunt Dorothy to
Aunt Dorothy’s great grandchildren.
She slept through most of it and will not remember this day, but she
will know she was there from the family picture we took with her, the newest member,
front and center. She will always know
she is part of the Waltzers.
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| Four Generations of Waltzer Ladies (plus Jasper, Cousin Sarah's son) |
Lexi also met her
father’s side of aunts, uncles and cousins and her Grandpa Mark’s side, too,
this summer. She got to celebrate
her grandpa’s 60th birthday and witnessed him and her daddy scuba
diving underwater in a cage in a shark tank at the aquarium. She also went on her first carousel in
Greenport, Long Island. And on a perfectly
warm and sunny day at summer’s end, we had her baby naming on our lawn with over
50 people. Rabbi Block, who
married Lindsay and Scott 3 years and 3 days before, performed the
ceremony. In the Jewish tradition,
we name our children after those who have passed. Lexi was named for three very special men- my father in law,
my father and my brother in law, Scott.
I actually felt their presence on that day. I see hints of their distinctive qualities in my granddaughter-
my father in law’s sweetness, my brother in law’s smile and my father’s blonde
hair and blue eyes. Lexi was
given the Hebrew name of Liora Shayna.
The translation for Liora is “my heart” and for Shayna is
“beautiful”. I think it fits her
perfectly.
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| The Feldman Family |
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| First carousel ride |
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| Liora Shayna |
The last few days
have been gloomy and cold and today there are snow showers, but most of autumn
this year has been spectacular, with warm air and sunny blue skies, the
backdrop for the multicolored foliage.
Autumn is my favorite season; it always makes me reflect on the year
that has passed. This year we have
had many blessings and milestones.
Those milestones included first smiles and giggles and the simple act of turning from belly to
back. The latest milestone was a
big party to celebrate my mom’s 90th birthday with another large
gathering of 50 people. Lexi slept
through most of that too, but no matter, she was there, and that made the day all
the more meaningful.
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| My mom with most of her third and fourth generation descendents! |
For her birthday, I
gave my mother two picture frames engraved with the inscription “Four
Generations”. In one I put the
picture from the day we met her family in the city and in the other I put the
picture of the four of us from the baby naming. Only in my hopeful imagination did I ever envision me with
my mom, daughter and her daughter in a photo together. That picture represents a milestone of
a lovely dream come true and is the most magnificent blessing of all.
Actually, the inscription on that picture
frame should be “Four Generations--Verklempt”.
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| From the day of the Lexi's Baby Naming |
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| From the day of Mom's 90th Birthday Party |
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