This past weekend was all about Moms. Enterprise picked us up and off we went on Friday to Hilton Head to spend the night with Mom. A glass of wine, a lovely dinner at her club, a good nights sleep, a long hot shower and and an early morning drive into Savannah found us at Scarlet’s (number 6 grandchild) first communion celebration.
She was beautiful! The dress she wore was made from Moms wedding dress that she wore when she married in 1953. It was recut and remade by Debbie Fredrick in Pascagoula. Scarlet is the fourth great granddaughter to receive her first communion in it.
Afterwards we celebrated with lunch at Savannah Yacht Club and then a great gathering of Michael and Ann’s friends in their back yard. Kids everywhere helping to celebrate Ella’s 10th birthday and Scarlet’s big day. Moms were everywhere! It was fun to meet them all.
Sunday Mass was all about Moms and included a traditional May Crowning complete with more first communion dresses processing down the isle. That’s an old tradition that was nice to see again.
Being a Mom has been the greatest joy of my life. I found myself wiping away tears of emotion all during the Mass. I was thrilled to have wakened up in my son’s home with his girls but also was missing my girls and our other five grands. Mac too was clearly missing his “Heavenly Moms”, Nonny and Jane. As Mass ended I knew I wanted to go back to Hilton Head to spend the day with Mom. We surprised her and joined in on brunch with my aunt and uncle and cousins. It was an easy -going delightful day.
Monday started out ok with hugs to the Savannah bunch and a drive back south to Jacksonville to get back on board. We stopped for breakfast in St Mary’s Georgia to see what the lay of the land is there in the event we choose to stop over on the cruise north. It’s a quaint little town across from Cumberland Island. We shall return.
Rain had moved in just as we moved our provisions and bags back on Pelican. This is really the first time we have had to batten down the hatches for any length of time. There’s potential for some tropical stuff to annoy us all week. Now those that know Mac know weather spins him out. He’s been known to disturb sleeping, grown up, married children at 5 am to tell them there is bad weather coming….ask my girls and their husbands!
Anyway, between his frantic weather watching and my concerns about being cooped up all week in the boat with him frantically weather watching, we are not in a good place together. Snarky, snarly, downright mean comments are flying between us all afternoon as we chase down leaks and trip over stuff that can’t live on the fly bridge in the rain. The Bickersons on steroids! Ahhh marital bliss amplified by the boating life.
Fortunately, we are safely on a dock in a great marina. There are far worse places to be. The Marina at Ortega Landing is protected, friendly, well appointed and resort-like. Thank God we are stranded here! The squalls are intermittent so we can escape the boat and come to dry land. The WiFi is good. The pool is nice. The laundry is free. We have books to read and planes to fly.
Now mothers know their daughters but daughters know their mothers pretty well too so when Jacquie called me Monday to ask if we were able to keep the boys on board for a couple of nights in July, after the family reunion week at Hilton Head, so she and Wes could go celebrate her birthday in Charleston, I think she could tell it was not the best day to be asking. She sensed my mood pretty quickly and said, “You need to blog about this. We’ve all been wondering…. every day can’t be all lovely!” Really? At the moment I was not willing to bring an additional toothpick onto this boat, much less three boys and their gear. I’m sure my “maybe” was not what she was hoping for. Don’t worry daughter, that is a discussion for another day!
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