Sunday, July 16, 2006

 

When I was a kid Grandmama always seemed to have much wampum to buy presents for little Carolina. She also taught me dirty words in Hungarian. She died about a week ago. This is an excerpt from the eulogy my mom wrote. "A personal memory goes back to when I was a child about 7 years old. Mom had a heart of gold and loved children. And drama was just just around the corner, and also a situation where actions would speak louder than words . I was a beautiful summers day in Allentown, PA where we lived and we went down to the River Jordan with a picnic lunch basket. Our side of the river was lush green, tree lined and green grass sloped down to the river's edge. On the other side rising out of the river was about a 20' stone wall that ran the width of the river. It was tree lined with picnic benches. From their side the picnickers could look down on us. On our side mother and I were settled on our blanket enjoying all of nature's beauty. As we took in the scene, we noticed a young couple arrived with a small child. They had put the child down and went about unloading their bundles to set up their picnic. Mother and I looked at each other and it was though we read each other's thoughts. And then, the unspoken happened. The child walked right off the high ledge and plunged into the river. Now mother in her day was a fine swimmer. She ran to the waters edge , dove in and was across the river in seconds. I saw her dive down once, then again and again, longer and longer each time, then she finally came up holding the child in her arms. I was feeling so many emotions at the time. Worry for my mother when she didn't come up right away after the first dive, worry that the river's current would carry the child away before she could reach it, anger at the parents who were standing at the edge of the wall screaming. Why didn't they jump in to help. Then many things were happening at once. Two other men who heard the screams had jumped in and were swimming toward mother. At this point the father of the child also jumped in. I saw mother hand the child to one of men and then she and the second man seemed to be struggling with the father. He was thrashing around and they seemed to be towing him toward shallow water. Then all three reached a place where they could stand in the river. I saw mother turn away from the men and she swam back to me. She said brusquely to me, "Lets go, he almost took me under." We gathered our things and left. And I thought to myself, "Why? Why does our beautiful outing have to end this way. We didn't get a newspaper delivery, but the next day mother brought a newspaper home from where she worked. She showed me the place where it carried the story about an unknown woman who helped save a child in the River Jordan.The grateful parents could not swim. My questions were answered. My sharing the chapter in our lives is testament to the kind of person mother was. I know mom made a difference in the lives of a family she didn't know.

posted by Caroline 7/16/2006 07:17:00 PM