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Polly and Me
Polly and I are best friends by default. We had no choice. Her mother
was my mother's aunt, and family was--and is--what matters most to the
two of us.
Back in 1933, the year that we were born, our families
lived near one another. Our mothers were "with child" at the same time.
Polly was the youngest of her family, and I was the first-born in mine.
I happened to make my appearance in the world three weeks ahead of her.
I can't imagine life without Polly. My first childhood memories are of the two
of us and summers spent with one aunt or another: in Willis at Aunt
Ethel's, where we had the best homegrown sliced tomatoes and the best
apple float ever; in Palestine at Aunkie's, with tea parties and baby
dolls and hot rolls brought home by Uncle Scott from the bakery. Those
were the days of walking barefoot everywhere, and playing until we were
ready to drop. Jan joined us and we fought over who got to pour the tea.
At Aunt Lilah's house we had to be really good. She loved us as much as
the others, but couldn't allow herself to be distracted from her own
"beautiful daughters."
As we got older we spent summers
at church camp. Those days bring back memories of friends that remain
embedded in our thoughts as we reminisce about times past, of camp songs
and secret-sharing and growing pains. And there were summers spent at
the lake, where we smoked our first cigarette in front of the grown-ups,
and spent many a night giggling until well past midnight with shared
secrets and plans for the glorious and glamorous lives we fully intended
to lead.
And then the future came and time passed, and suddenly,
without warning, we have become "the older generation." All our plans
and hopes and dreams have been fulfilled, perhaps not as we had thought
they would be, but with the everlasting hope for the future for those we
will leave behind, with love of family intact. We've reached that place
in life where we welcome our "second childhood," and once again Polly
and I have time for one another.
Suzanne Gillespie
Richardson, Texas
Published:
November 14,
2005
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