Day by Day with Camille

 (Due to circumstances beyond my control, I was unable to post this entry on March 27th, so am doing so today.) 36 years ago (March 27, 1990) my Grandma Freeman (Veda Corinna Davis Freeman) died due to a stroke. She was 91. It was early in the morning.  The weekend before she died, my Mother and I brought her to our house for the day. My Mother put a permanent into her silver hair, and I painted her fingernails pale shell pink. We had lunch, drank a lot of iced tea with lemon in it, and talked.  At the time of my Grandma's death, my Dad and I had the Towne Flower Shop. My Mother requested a yellow rose casket spray for her. I used 100 yellow roses making it. It was truly my pleasure to create it in her honor.  Something that I had written about her in high school English class, and that was published in a high school literary magazine, was read at her funeral, per her request. It was an essay entitled My Grandmother. I have always thought of it as one of the better t...

 Today is my Grandpa's birthday! This afternoon, I took two wisteria blooms to his grave at Floral Garden Cemetery. The plants they bloomed from were from vines at his Howell's Point Property in coastal NC. I knew that they were the perfect thing to take, that he would have loved that they were from his place.              One of the things that my Grandpa would say is: Live within your means. The thing that I remember about him is his low, warm, rich chuckle of a laughter. It is kind of understated, but it is a rich warm laughter of a life well-lived.  My Grandpa made clay pipes to sell at 9 years old. During the Roaring Twenties he made bath tub gin.  He was a Doughboy in WW1 (the Great War), and he painted in the shipyards in Newport News VA in WW11, until painters' colic sent him home.  He was an amazing gardener. He loved to see things grow. He always had fresh young yellow squash that he gave a youngest granddaughter. He alway...

 At just before sunset, I cut limbs of white dogwood, redbud, azalea, and wisteria and arranged them in a vase on my table! Welcome Spring!

 My Dad would have been 89 today. Earlier today, my terrier (my girl Ellie) and I took spring flowers in hues of blues and purples (his favorite colors) to his grave at Holly Hill Memorial Park. They were playing instrumental piano and guitar music thru the Bell Tower there today, which is near my Dad's grave. He would LOVE that, as my Dad was a very talented pianist and organist.  One of my favorite memories about my Dad dates from the 1990s, when we were both antique hunting and had a booth in a local antique mall. We had gone to the Metrolina antique and flea market event one weekend, and while we were there, my Dad noticed a baby grand piano from the Rockefeller estate that one of the antique dealers had on display there. My Dad asked the man if he could play it, and the man seemed delighted, and said, "Please do." So my Dad started playing. The first song was a Gershwin standard. A crowd started gathering, just to listen to my Dad play, and the dealer asked him to pl...

 My cousin Eddie turns 60 years old today. This blog post is my way of sending birthday greetings.  I'll start with a few things that I remember about him when we were growing up. Most of the time that we spent together was at our grandparents' (Atlas and Veda Freeman) house on Burton Street in High Point, NC. Eddie is my first cousin. My mother, Loretta, was Eddie's mother's, Norine, younger sister.  I am around a year and a half older than Eddie. I am the youngest Freeman granddaughter, and he is the youngest grandson.  Eddie was a huge NASCAR fan growing up. As far as I am aware, he still is now. The driver I heard the most about from him was Bobby Allison. He had a collection of NSACAR Matchbox cars. He was also a Miami Dolphins fanatic. His favorite cookie was vanilla (Nilla) wafers. He loved a song called "Joy to the World". He loved WWII history, even taking German in high school because of his historical interest. At least that's what he told me.  ...

 To mark the occasion of my first cousin, Eddie Coggins) 40th wedding anniversary today to his wife, Maureen, I decided to post a few things that I remember regarding them. Eddie is my first cousin by way of his mother, Norine Freeman Coggins Stanly, who was my mother's (Loretta Freeman Green) older sister. Eddie and Maureen were married on January 22, 1986. I myself was finishing my senior year in college. To the best of my recollection, the first time I remember meeting Maureen was when she and Eddie had brought their infant son, Tony (Edward Anthony Coggins), over for our grandmother, Veda Davis Freeman, to hold him. Our grandmother was blind, since before Eddie or I were ever born, and so she ran her hands over Tony's tiny face carefully. It was her way of sensing what he looked like.  When Eddie and I were growing up, and were at our grandparents' house on Burton Street one summer afternoon (both of us were still in elementary school at the time), Eddie told me that wh...