MamMa and Pop's



A few weeks ago, I finished exams early and flew to Jacksonville, where I met my parents to go to the Crawfish Festival in Woodbine, GA (it’s as remote as it sounds) and mainly see my grandparents, MamMa and Pop, in their home before they move. They’ve lived in that house as long as I’ve been alive, and I became quite reflective as I sat in their lazy boy and talked about the farmer down the road one last time. Life is a weird thing. People always say it’s cyclical; fashion trends come and go, people get old and die and babies are born to take their place on the earth, and it all goes round and round. But this weekend I really felt that cycle, felt myself rushing forward with my hands spread wide to catch everything as it slips through my fingers, felt myself lay in the sun watching it all pass. A passive resistance. A comforting stability juxtaposed by the knowledge that nothing is stagnant. Life is dynamic, and that’s beautiful in its own right. At Mamma and Pop’s house, I took a brief walk out on the crunchy grass, listening to a pack of kids howl just across the field. They apparently now reside in the house where Ms. Hatti used to live. The moment I drove up, my eyes were repulsed by all the gadgets and toys they had set up; is this place a vacation resort? Why the tents in the yard, the hammocks, the kayaks on the pond? All this where Hatti lived just a few short months (years?) ago, offering me candy on her couch and telling me the same story over and over. But then, as I took my brief walk, I realized it’s beautiful- right, even. Why shouldn’t young, happy children play where I once did? Didn’t I lay in that same grass just a few short years ago, talking with Kelsi and guessing what shapes the clouds were making? As I pondered this, Mom and Dad spoke with the realtor about selling MamMa and Pop’s house. I thought about how I, too, would have to uproot myself and move in a few days, after graduating Vandy and hugging my friends goodbye. Only after watching my grandparents pray together, laugh together, and sing together did I truly understand: change can be weird and uncomfortable, but no amount of chaos can shake the memories of a life well-lived and the love those lives rendered.

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