Happy BIRTHDAY, Carole

Hello Birthday Carole, 

I dreamed of you the other night and awoke in tears. 

What reminded me of you was Miguel, my grandson whom you never met because you died three years before he was born. He's nineteen, was home on winter break. 

There is something familiar, a kinship about him that triggered thoughts of you. He has your trait of laughter with a spontaneity and glee. We laughed and giggled all the time he was here. His exuberance evident, funny and crisp.

He carries a touch of you and my dream-state recognized it. In that sleep, I was sitting on the ground in front of a desolate home garage with faint circle-blur spots staining its white trim. And perched on the roof, a female weathervane pointed toward the heavens. 

I woke up tearful with longing and remembrance.

October 19, 2023 ---- October 19, 2002

 Hey Carole,

Sister Love 

of my life,

yearning,

missing,

dreaming of you.

New Miami Food Court and Josh's Key Lime Pie

Video with Key Lime Pie Vending Machine

Well, not sure if video will load .... 

but below is a screen screen shot from video. 

Mall hosts Fookem's Fabulous

Key Lime Pie

PLUS link to Forbes article:

Julia & Henry's: This Miami 

Food Mall Delivers Sublime

International Flavors

 

Infused

Writing class prompt: June 2023

The call that change my life

 

The call that changed my life came in on October 20 at 9:42 AM. I was in the kitchen, the phone on the wall, its long coiled cord like a huge banana curl nearly reaching the floor. 

 

I wore pink shorts and a tank top, ready and grateful for a bike ride ahead.  The year before I’d had a 50-50 chance following a grim surgery and now could peddle through the neighborhood.

 

Hello, I answered.

 

I heard my son’s twenty-one-year-old voice. Mom where have you been?

 

Been here, I said, left the phone off the hook, you know Nana calls all hours of the day and night …

 

I’ve been trying to reach you since 2:30 this morning.

 

2:30 this morning?

 

My body instinctively tensed. Time diffused.

 

Mom, Carole died.

 

Carole, my sister Carole?

 

The sister who could expand mythologies, explore the hidden power of inanimate things, extend them, make them malleable, turn them inside out. And suddenly — whish — a beginning appeared bright and alluring renewed by a fresh perspective, her words transmuting the order of the universe. She with a knowledge that preceded our birth. 

 

That sister, the love of my life?

My sister, Carole?  

Gone?

*

I dream,

and dream,

and dream, of you 

as if we

were infused. 

Joshua. Key Limes Pies !!!! Out of the yard, into a storefront. YAY

 

April 9, 2023

Key lime pie guy of Coconut Grove won't have to sell dessert from his yard much longer

Key lime pie guy of Coconut Grove won't have to sell dessert from his yard much longer

Joshua. Key Lime Pies!!! YAY! Front page.

Februaury 24, 2023

King Mango Strut Parade, January 2023

 Oh Carole,

You would have loved it! Was like our 1960's Boston college days, a troupe of stoned happy adults. Plus familes, people of all ages, seemed like the largest crowd in a decade, thats what Danny said anyway.  We had an outside table at Greenstreets .... compliments of the boys local friends.

The pics will show some. Wanted to add more, have a slew of them but for some reason they are not loading. One float was a celebration of Cconut Grove's 150 birthday. This year's theme, "The Queen is Dead, Long Live the King," honored a new era. With Gov. DeSantis at the helm, we'd better watch out!

Sam's entry....Her Majestry's Last Tour with a skeleton in the back seat. Plus Melissa and her sister. Sam amd William in front.

Josh with his key line pie bike, his entry related to the mess up of Coconut Grove / City of Miami  commiss-ion seats! District 2.

Below: Nancy, Josh's girl, Miss Queen Bee from a Save the Bee's entry.

Danny getting his drone ready, now popular in video shoots.

As of this posting, Miami's Heat arena still has the cyptocurrency FTX logo attached to it. Running of the Bullshittters in every parade!

January 3, 2023. Birthday Wishes

 Hello my dear sister Carole,

Your 73 birtday, we a year apart now, a year and eons. 

I placed a fresh box of chocolates under your picture on the mantel, twenty years since you've been gone. Gone is comphrensible, you not part of this present, away – twenty years is not.

The hum-drum numb grief of emptiness continuing without you, ache and tears an acceptance of this fact. 

*

You'd be proud of your sons, both keep busy. Danny with his video work as well as his immediate need for a plumber. Josh continues baking and baking his key lime pies. We celebrated Josh's birthday this year on the actual date of it. Was also the last day of Hanukkah so we combined both. Had a jollygood evening. 

*

The above composed last night, before midnight, posted minutes later when your birthday arrived. In the hours between, I dreamed of your exuberance, inquisitiveness, the fun we shared. Your laughter.  In sleep we were together again, in a crowded small store jammed with "stuff." One of us, most likely you, tried on a pair of  form-fitting colorful plastic jean-like pants, white colored with an artful background. I'd thought how odd the pants were, the shiny, sheen texture of thick plastic. 

In retrospect, perhaps not so unusual. Most everything passes – breath and thumbprints. Birthdays. Agony and loss until both do we part.

Oh Carole, how you are missed.

Carole on Extralove.com

Dreaming on Celeste's Birthday, Novemeber 18, 2022

Hi Carole,

It's Celeste's birthday today, she working, we celebrated last week. 

I've been with a cold. Just awoke from a nap, dreamed of you, about 15-years-old.  A smallish silver-gray satin chair was being delivered to you, the fancy kind placed in front of a dressing table ..... 

My dear daughter and sister on a day together.  

October 19, 2022. Twenty years.

October 19, 2022

MY dear sister, tweny years gone. A lifetime of love.

January 3, 1950 to October 19, 2002

Carole Leslie Marcus Abril