The Snowflake Chronicles

Roses in December

2 Kamal 163 B.E. - August 2, 2006

When you are down God gave us a memory so that we might have roses in December.--JM Barrie

Whenever I think of my Grandmother Darbe, my father's mother, I think of the apron she always wore. I never saw her without that apron. It looked like it was made of a flower sack, the kind that flower came in when it was bought in bulk. My Grandma Darbe had a wood burning stove in her kitchen. I can remember the scent of the burning wood and the baking bread. She always made her own bread. I have a memory of a butter churn, not sure precisely where this one came from. It is possible I saw Grandma Darbe churning butter when I was very small or it could be from when I visited uncle John's farm. Anyway, I can remember someone making butter using wooden butter churn and we had home made bread and butter. I don't have a lot of memories about my father's side of the family. The memories I do have are short and come at odd times.

What else do I remember? I remember visiting my Grandma Darbe and the neighbors had a chicken house wired for electricity because they had incubators for the eggs. There was a short in the wiring and I got a shock when I was leaving the chicken house. It's interesting what one remembers. I wasn't very old when these memories were made. After my parents got divorced I didn't see my father's side of the family. In fact, the only one from that side of the family I ever saw after the divorce was my Grandma Darbe. We went to her house one Christmas. She lived in Burbank, Oklahoma at the time. The last time I saw her she was wearing The flowered, flour sack apron. I think she made those aprons herself.