Imagine a whole weekend with Rose, Blanche and Dorothy? Come on…you can’t deny that you would absolutely LOVE every moment of it!
Earlier this summer I said to my Mom, “You know what, Mom? It’s time for you to have a little fun at the cottage and not have to do ANYTHING! How about a girls weekend with a couple of friends and I will be there, on the sidelines, cooking and making sure your drinks are topped up?” How could she say no? She absolutely could NOT! This weekend Mom and her friends had some serious fun!
The weekend was filled with delicious food, trips into town for shopping, art galleries and a museum visit! (okay, seriously, the museum had a tickle trunk, these ladies made me dress up like a pioneer, not exactly what I signed up for! Ha ha! ) It continued with a swim at the lake, Prosecco to celebrate their friendship and nibbles of dark chocolate with lots of giggles.
The giggles is what got me. The giggles made me melt.
All weekend long these three beautiful German ladies, all fast approaching the big 8-0, shared stories. Stories of being children of the war times, how they went without and how they made do with what they had. Two of them talked about being a teenager in Germany in 1955 and not having any money to buy stockings. Instead they took the black soot from a match and painted a perfect line up the back of their legs, replicating the seam of a stocking.
They talked about their parents, their grandparents and how, even though they were poor after the war they always knew they were loved and that’s why they thrived. They then continued with stories of what it was like to leave their Motherland and come to Canada, get married, have children, grandchildren and then nurse sick husbands and inevitably watch them pass away. I listened and learned so much from all of them. They have survived so much, and I know that life has not been easy for any of them.
I heard life experiences that were sad and remarkable at the same time. To me the most remarkable thing about their stories was the attitude that all three of them shared. Every experience had a positive light. They looked at life in a way that I think must only come with the wisdom of age.
I shared a walk with one of these fabulous ladies, let’s call her Blanche. I shared my worries with her and how I felt about the ups and downs in my own life. She looked at me and said, “Just be happy, don’t let anyone or anything take away from your happiness.”
I’ve heard this advice before but it stuck with me a little differently this time. It brought a tear to my eye and put a lump in my throat as it tugged at my heartstrings.
Next time I worry and over analyze all of the facets of my life I will think of these three Golden Girls and how, with all of their life experience, good and bad, here we were in the summer of 2019 having a weekend at the cottage where every morning I woke up to the sound of their giggles and thought for sure I was sharing a weekend with three 13 year old girls. Now that’s what I call wise beyond their years!
Monica XO
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