-- Donna Kay--
So, today, in January and NOT December, we took the next to the last Christmas gift, with shamefacedness for being so late, to my cousin Donna Kay. She's 2 years older than me and she’s been a friend for many years.
When we were younger, my great-aunt, her grandmother, held campouts in the sparse woods beside Donna’s house. Roasting hot dogs, making s’mores, and singing gospel songs around the bonfire sure was fun.
Another time, in our teens, my cousin and her mother and sister said, “Let’s go to Castleton Square.” I thought, “What’s a Castleton Square?” Turns out what I once knew as a cornfield had sprouted overnight, in my mind, into a big shopping mall.
It was complete with a Sears, next to a J. C. Penney’s, and a Hallmark Store, the likes of which I’d never seen before. There I got my first look at a Studio greeting card, tall, and narrow, with a cutting-edge, humorous greeting.
Example, on the front: "Congratulations! It couldn't happen to a nicer person"
Inside quip: "If it did, it would be me."
Loved it! It was a new and fun experience.
Another time, with her mother driving, we all went shopping --- for empty cardboard boxes! We headed to appliance stores, and big box stores to find a good supply. The boxes that we found were then taken to church to make walls for a haunted house in the basement. That haunted house was a blast.
Another new and fun adventure.
Nowadays, my friend is confined to a wheelchair but sports a smile and still shows a good sense of humor with her infectious laughter.
For years, every Wednesday, we talked on the phone, “Hi! How are you?” “How’s your family?” “Have you heard from Andy?” “Did you enjoy your trip to Vero Beach?” "Mikkie lives down there, really?" “Wow, you really got quite a sunburn!”
Andy's my brother who she dearly loves. She thinks he's especially funny. And Mikkie is her family's friend that moved to Florida.
And then we began a pen pal correspondence; snail mail, as they say these days, which eventually evolved into email letters. It wasn't long before I realized I could communicate with her through this blog. Her caregivers would check for new blogs and read them to her.
Every Christmas she and I exchanged gifts. It was a running joke that anything chocolate, like brownies, had to be secreted away because her dad loved them just as much as she did, and sometimes he'd eat more than his share, LOL.
"Brownies? What brownies?"
But, I have to tell you about the crack shot in the movie theater at the Mounds Mall. No sense in even trying to remember the name of the movie. She would. She had the memory of an elephant, ALWAYS. It’s clean left my mind. There were several of us teenagers; we were between the ages of 15 to 22, and we helped cousin Donna from her wheelchair into a theater seat.
In those days, our family couldn’t afford the theater’s popcorn and soda pop, so we brought in our own snacks. And…in those days soda pop from the grocery store only came in glass bottles. After we’d selected our seats, rearranged ourselves, and sat down, we began passing out the snacks and drinks. Keep in mind, this was a no-no. You did NOT bring in your own refreshments!
And I sure shouldn’t have.
This glass bottle of 16 oz. diet Pepsi was tucked under my left armpit under my coat. Well ... it slipped. I couldn’t grab it fast enough. It slid out from under my coat. It fell between the seat and the armrest. It crashed to the floor. It hit that cement floor like the sound of a shotgun in a metal storage u-lock-it! KA-BANG! SHATTER! SPLAT!
Liquid and glass, everywhere!
As for us, we sat there stiff as mannequins in double starched clothes, hoping to high heaven no one knew it was us. We didn't move. We didn't speak. And we sure didn't look at each other! We looked around at other ticket holders instead! To this day, I don’t know how we didn’t give ourselves away by laughing out loud or how the ushers didn't discern the source, how they didn’t know from where that awful, ringing-from-the rafters sound came!
And, Donna restrained herself, too. She never cracked a cackle!
Until we got back in the car. Then it was an eruption of giggles and chatter and laughter!
What a memory!
Re-telling that story always makes Donna laugh heartily.
Today, some 45 years later, we made a new memory. Today, darling hubby, three sons, daughter-in-law, and grandbaby went with me to take my cousin Donna her yearly Christmas gift. We talked with her sister, and her caregiver, and told stories, and shared jokes, and petted their dogs Livvy and Maddy.
I accepted a gift that Donna had particularly picked out for me -- a beautiful angel playing a harp. It sets on my night stand and plays "Oh, Come All Ye Faithful".
Back to Miss Lilly, our granddaughter, who just loves dogs. She just had to pet them, she said, “Aw, puppy.”
And when her mother asked, “What does a doggy say?” 2 yr. old Lilly in her baby high-pitched gentle voice answered, “Woof, woof.”
Before you could shake a stick, Lilly, in her violet-red hooded coat, was out of her daddy’s arms and down on all fours, just like the dogs, face to face, black nose to pink nose sharing doggy kisses, ha, ha, ha.
Donna laughed. We all laughed.
On this day, the 6th of January, when it’s customary to commemorate the visit of the Magi, to have all Christmas taken care of, we delivered our last gifts to a loved one, cousin and friend, Donna Kay.
TODAY'S TRIBUTE: My dear cousin passed away a few days ago, June 11, 2025, just 15 days shy of her 70th birthday. It's bittersweet. She was sweet, though her body was weak. I will miss purposely composing blogs for her to read, visits on her birthday and at Christmas, and, the reliving of precious memories.
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