Saturday, November 2, 2019

On the Day of the Dead

I probably shouldn't have been surprised to have received a visit from the departed. After all, they say the veil between the worlds is thin at this time of the year.

Yesterday I'd put Josie down for a nap in her crib at the foot of the bed. "You lie down too, Meema! On the big bed."

Well, okay. I was sleepy and the room was warm as I'd built a fire in the little wood stove. I'll just rest my eyes, a bit, then sneak out once she goes to sleep, I told myself.

And then my late mother-in-law and my mother, also late, came to the door to see Josie.

At first I told them not to talk so loud, as Josie was asleep. But they were insistent. And now she was waking up. So I said, "Look, Josie, it's-" then suddenly realized she'd never met them and had no name for them. So I used the names her daddy had for them, "... it's Gran and Virginia."


After which the dream devolved into an emergency situation involving a leg of lamb in the microwave (not something I'd ever do) and grease pouring out and dripping off the walls of the pantry where the microwave lives in real life. A grease fire about to happen.

And then the phone (once there was a landline in the pantry) rang, and someone began a long litany of complaints about the writing class (not mine) they were taking.

"Are you learning anything from it, however indirect?"  I asked, just before I woke up.

I lay there pondering about the dream. And wondering if I'd learned anything from it, however indirect.

Neither my mother nor my mother-in-law really approved of me, and our relationships were less than ideal. And they didn't much like each other either. But lying there thinking about the dream, I realized that they are both a part of Josie. (As are her six other great grandparents. And her sixteen great-great grandparents and her thirty-two great great grandparents . . .)

And maybe, in her, are all these differences reconciled.

Maybe. At any rate, the dream made me feel more warmly about those two.  Which was a nice gift on the Day of the Dead.






6 comments:

Anvilcloud said...

That was an interesting visitation. You have to wonder where these things come from.

Barbara Rogers said...

Yes, all those who have gone before have left a bit of their genes in each of us, and hopefully the disapproving parts will be reconciled. A friend who was adopted wants to know where he came from, so will hope to find more by having his DNA charted...and at the same time I have all kinds of information on my ancestors...but we just are who we are! Interesting dream you had!

Elizabeth Varadan, Author said...

That was such an interesting dream. A couple of times I had dreams about someone departed, but it led me to finding out he had really departed. I didn't know until I followed up on the second dream.

Nan Emanuel said...

I can identify. I married into another religion and my mother-in-law's "big-city-ways" were all but foreign to me. I grew up with a mom who was raised on a ranch in Oregon, who applied clear nail polish at the kitchen table if she was going to "paint the town red" that night. With those two impediments, our initial relationship was rocky at best. (she was husband's step-mom)

We came to an "understanding" over time, knowing that words could be the cruelest and most devastating weapon if used unwisely. We never "crossed the line", and in the last years she was with us, we were as close as two woman who had nothing in common could possibly grow. We grew to "love" each other, in our own ways. I'm truly sorry that you didn't experience that in your own life. I can honestly say that I think back on her fondly.

Linda M said...

My paid friend, my therapist, long ago would have said that was a BIG DREAM. It did have importance and you got the gift, I think. Plus you got a nap so you could enjoy the rest of the day with Josie. A great thing on the Day of Dead.

Mary Maupin said...

Sweet dream--or sweet aftermath. xoxo