When John and I first met, one of the first things I learned to do was making kulich, a rich creamy spread made of all things given up during lent, butter, cream, sugar, raisins and more. It is served on a bread called pasca. Mom loved the ceremony of it all and did certain readings and recalled her own family traditions during this time.
Her father was Russian Orthodox and her mother Roman Catholic. They settled on the Roman Catholic tradition and had six children. My mother-in-law was the baby. She loved her father and lost him tragically at the age of 13. He was a fine artist being commissioned for work all around New England and beyond.
She and my father-in-law met at a dance at Emmanuel College in Boston and married, having their first four children within the first four years of marriage. My father-in-law was studying mechanical engineering at Northeastern University in Boston. He worked on many things, some of those being the gyroscopes for the Apollo missions and Patriot missiles. He also loved hiking and sailing. My husband,the baby was born four years later.
She was proud of her children. The oldest, ML went into psyche nursing, later running the three government run psyche hospitals in the state of Maine. Her second, Jimmy was an artist and singer. The third, Cathy was a ballet dancer and pianist. The fourth, Pete, was Ph.D in electrical engineering and designed signal processing chips that went into the generation of computer storage that came out sometime in the mid-2000s. My husband has always loved building and can make and fix almost anything and is a construction manager. When my husband, Pete and Dad got together, there is nothing they couldn't solve.
Mom was a teacher of piano and voice. She loved singing around the piano, teaching at Boston College, taking courses at Boston college, directing her Acapella Choir, vacationing in Vermont, hiking in Vermont, sailing in Vermont, walks, and when they lived in New England, they lived close enough to town that she walked everywhere.
She was energetic, loved Jesus and loved to put out good music. She is now singing in the angel band and like my sister-in-law said, giving them a tip or two. I am glad we made all of those memories around the piano, at Easter, Christmas, in Vermont, when she and my father-in-law moved here and got to be with my family, then getting to meet her only granddaughter.
As FFH sang in their song, I picture her saying these words:
"So here's goodbye here's so long
I must go and follow love
I feel my heart moving on
I must go and follow love
Carry on while I'm gone
This is what I've been dreaming of
I miss you so
But I must go, go and follow love"
Thank you for stopping by Coffee At My Table. This post is dedicated to Mary Arapoff McEwen, so long for now.
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