Darkest Hour is just before the Dawn

Ode to a Platitude

Karen growled and muttered an assortment of foul words in her car, driving over speed limit.  Her visit to Mom and Grandma had not provided the affirmation and comfort she had hoped it would.

Bill had packed up his stuff in the night and was gone before she woke up.  Note:  I’m outta here, bitch…and the last word was written in bold letters. Now, Karen needed to share her pain.

She had been in Mom’s kitchen, sipping on peach herbal tea.  Mom was kneading bread, taking loaf after loaf from the oven.  These would go to the homeless shelter.  Grandma was sitting quietly while knitting baby blankets for preemies at the local hospital.

Karen had been trying tell of her woes and ask for advice when the litany began.

“You know, honey, the darkest hour is just before the dawn. You’ll do fine.” This one came from Mom.

“Such is life,” Grandma added. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!” She dropped a stitch, but caught it time.

Mouth open, Karen had looked from one face to the other, listening with disbelief.

“Yes, sweetie. God has a plan for you…you just don’t know it yet!...and then…It is what it is…Time heals all wounds…Life doesn’t give you things you can’t handle…It could be worse…It wasn’t meant to be…There are plenty more fish in the sea…Everything happens for a reason..

When Karen’s grandma said “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen”…

Karen had leaped to her feet and raced to her car.  She skidded out the driveway, narrowly missed the mailbox.  This found her flying along the freeway with profanity tailing after her.  Her thoughts were not kind.  If she ever heard one more mindless platitude, she would vomit.

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The italicized and underlined phrase is from Wednesday Words, where bloggers can play and experiment with the words or prompt.

These words or prompts are provided each week by Elephant's Child and fellow blogger River

Many thanks to Delores, who created this idea.  This is a re-post from 2014. I hear and read those cursed gems all the time.

My Grandson, the car thief

I need some more cars.

Today my grandson and I played “cars”.  His collection is huge, while I have only 6 cars, one of which is gone.

One by one we shared our cars. 

My little yellow and orange plastic cars (from the movie “Cars”) to his massive earth mover which he calls his "digger".  My bus to his blue car...  

Yet the little stinker tried to take them from me!

My bus, fire engine, light green VW —the little thief tried to take them all!

Fortunately his hand could not break through the computer screen.  My car, indeed.

Skype is a marvelous invention for a grandmother longing for her little guy in Switzerland.

At least he didn’t get my hot red convertible.  It is under the desk, hiding.

 

Eating hamburger and French Fries with his daddy

Dear Diary....

Source: Dear Diary....

It is rare thing to grab a random day’s memories from say, July 20, 1968.  Just a few words of a memory, but somehow those words piece together who I was on that day.

Forgotten diaries reveal so much, maybe too much sometimes.

July 20, 1968:  Grandma Cardiff is moving out of her apartment.  This makes me so sad.  She has a lot of packing to do.  I started a “hope chest” today with some of her linens and glasses.

Translation:  My grandma had been widowed in 1965, which sent her into a traveler’s life.  This new apartment was close to my high school, and I could walk there, spend the nights.  It was my escape place, removed from the farm and its demands.  Now she was moving off again.  She gave me some of her treasured dishes and embroidered pillow cases.    She made me feel happy and loved, and now she was off again.

July 20, 1968: Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrain landed on the moon safely.  Neil Armstrong took the first step on the moon.

Translation:  I had graduated high school six weeks before.  I was heading to college, after herculean work to obtain a scholarship.  The news had been following the projected moon-landing.  In the middle of the night for our area, I watched it while my family slept.  The volume was on low, but the excitement was not.  That day was one of future possibilities—for me.

What will I read next?

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