Mom and dad were married in Chicago on July 1, 1943. This is their wedding photo.
Many years ago Peg gave me a book that she treasured and knew I'd love, a collection of poetry and prose called The Limits of Art. Published in 1948, it's got almost 1,500 smooth, whispery pages of great writing from the past three thousand years or so. All of the poems and excerpts appear in their first language, i.e., Greek, French, Italian, etc., and in English. When she gave it to me, she told me to open it to any page and read it, I’d always find something exquisite. It was an amazing gift, and I still go to this book for inspiration. Her name written inside, with the characteristic curled underline with two short vertical lines through the middle, greets me from the front page.
I opened to this poem today by Thomas Carew, 1595 – 1645:
A Song
Ask me no more whither doth hast
The Nightingale when May is past:
For in your sweet dividing throat
She winters, and keeps warm her note.
As a kid I associated everything Nana did as being classy. Somehow I got it into my head that an Entenmann's coffee cake was the epitome of classy desserts, because she made it that way. She and Pop-pop would come out to the boonies of Long Island in that classy black cadillac and we'd drink coffee and have cake and I would try to stay at the table as long as possible to emulate her classiness. She had high expectations of all of us, and I always worried I wasn't living up to them. I know she always pushed for all of us to excel intellectually.
Maybe I shouldn't write this memory on here, but one of my earliest memories of Nana was her sitting at that table with the crystal whiskey bottles by the window overlooking the East River, smoking and saying how she was going to "die soon anyway" so it didn't matter how much she smoked. That was 25 years ago! I guess you never know what's going to happen.
I don't think I'd really know my extended family at all if it wasn't for Nana, she made sure we all got together every year for the holidays. I look at how scattered my fiance's family is and how he hasn't seen any of his cousins in 10 years, and will always hold Nana in a special place for tying us all together for the rest of our lives.
I remember Nana giving us really beautiful Easter baskets. I didn't know what Easter was, but I knew that we would put on dresses and go into the city and Nana would have these giant wicker baskets ready for us. They were really pretty with the green grass, string bows, and lots of chocolate rabbits. It was really special to me, not only because I love candy, but it was something she had for us. She made us part of something bigger, and it was something I looked forward to every year. I hope when I have nieces or grandkids that I go out my way like that to make something special every year.
