Professor Sharon

My birthday in 1961(?)

My birthday in either 1961 or 1960.  My family always put one more candle than your age on the cake for “good luck.”   Next to me sits one of my younger brothers, Arthur, born in 1958, being a little kid helping me blow out the candles!  Now that I look at him, it’s probably 1961 because he does look older than two, doesn’t he?

Behind me are my father’s sister and mother: Alicia and Mary Donlon

I’m wearing my favorite sweater of all time, given to me by my godparents, Mary and Jim Hildebrandt.  They were so very good to me.  Any new clothes I ever owned were gifts from them, and how I did love this sweater.  And, being the third daughter with only younger brothers, the gift of new clothes were a delight.  I always wore the hand me downs of my two sisters.  It was what was done – then and still – by smart parents with multiple children or friends with children.  It doesn’t mean I liked it any though!

Like me, that brother is grown up now, though I know little about him.  His personal life had some more downs than ups for a while, and we became estranged in 2013 when our mother died.  We had a rocky road over the years, with some wonderful times during his first marriage when he lived a couple of hours away and our children were little. Maybe it will smooth out again, but I’m not holding my breath anymore.

Recently I did the math and realized that I lived for this long with each of my siblings: 11 years, 13 years, 14 years, and 7 years.  Did you ever stop to think about how long you actually have lived with some of the people who seem to have the most effect on your life?  I find the influence we so often allow those years to have on ourselves so fascinating.

I care for the few memories I have of my childhood, and I’ve decided to work on writing more of them.  I do want to make sense of some of them, enjoy others, and look the other way once and for all about some other memories. That’s why I’m not holding my breath anymore, not working hard to repair the road and make it passable, not caring which town on that road we live on in relationship to each other.

“Let it go” says the popular song from a recent children’s movie!  Life really does need more  letting it go!  Enjoy the memories you want to…and really, toss the rest away.  Who needs the bad stuff? At 61 years old, more candles than will fit on any cake, I want only the good…so I’m throwing out the junk.  I’m not repairing the road, making it smooth, I’m leaving it behind and choosing some other adventure! The adventure of life and the grandchildren in my own life!