Lest We Forget

Now it is time for a Diva Calico Gen Cat to confess.  Somewhere in my pretty little brain, I assumed the Two Footed had the slice of the pie, while the Four Footed had to continually strive in order to achieve a life worth living.  Listening to the stories Momma shares, I may have had it all wrong.  We, the Four Footed,  sit  in shock as she pours bucket after bucket of truth on our heads and in our ears, flooding our hearts with compassion.

Uncle WW2 Sergeant (Grandmama’s brother) had gone to the war a naïve country boy but returned as a stranger, so said the locals.  He had seen too much, lived through too much mayhem, for such a sensitive soul.  Today it would be labelled PTSD.  Then, you were written off as another raging alcoholic. To Momma, Uncle WW2 Sergeant appeared to be no shrinking violet but rather belligerent, burly and in your face. His ability to turn  an ounce into a pound was well renowned. He rented expensive farm equipment to the local farmers. On top of that he rented himself out as a Captain on a big fishing boat. He commandeered men, boats and fish, all with the same gung-ho-get-it-done attitude. Still, everyone knew he was a victim, with some invisible part cut out and left on a battlefield in Italy.  We listened if he talked about the war but were warned not to ask questions and possibly make him have more re-occurring nightmares.

Now p–l–e–a–s–e, don’t say that all the baby boomers born after the war were not interested in the battles their fathers, cousins, brothers, uncles and friends fought.  However ‘in the day’, if adults told them not to question, they obeyed, said Momma.  Yes, they were interested but waited long after Buddy had disappeared before Uncle WW2 Sergeant opened up about his experiences of the war and how powerless it made him feel.

It is not that Uncle WW2 Sergeant was totally insensitive to the world around him.  It was a great disappointment to him and Auntie Spanish Marilyn Munroe that they only had the one son. Buddy prayed to God nightly, because he wanted a sibling, but if that was too much to ask for, could he just have a puppy?  Uncle WW2 Sergeant had his finger on every pulse, so of course, the next puppies that were born in his community, had one ear was marked for Buddy.

Oh and that baby thing?  Well that took a little longer but Uncle WW2 Sergeant also had a team of locals with their ears to the ground, waiting for an opportunity to help out a damsel in distress….and well, money talks, it screams, actually. Just ask Grandmama’s Aunt Only Sister who waited years to adopt her son by jumping through the legal bureaucratic hoops of no return.  Trust me, that privately arranged adoption of a baby girl, right in his home town, went much faster.

Talk about bragging rights.  Uncle WW2 Sergeant, Auntie Spanish Marilyn Munroe and Buddy were over the moon, in love. Baby Be All End All walked at six months, she talked at nine months, and she was absolutely the most amazing baby ever born, according to Uncle WW2 Sergeant, Auntie Spanish Marilyn Munroe and Buddy. She was amazingly alert, with smoky grey-blue eyes that appeared to have a black rim around her pupils, that bewitched you.  It was difficult to tear your gaze away. Everyone knew how long they waited and most were just happy to see them so satisfied after such an agonizing effort brought forth such a resounding result. But that green-eyed monster lived long and had no intention of dying.  There were inaudible grumbles that ‘you reap what you sew’ ……but who among has not felt that sometime about someone.

Ah, a new day was dawning with a Panoramic View of Paradise.  Who knew how fast and furiously the sun would set, leaving the family in tatters? Charlie, Jakita and I just shake our head in disbelief as Momma tells us, there is more.  Just let me try to wrap my calico head around it before I share it with you….because you know and I know, sometimes….Stuff Happens…..