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Fuzzy Felix Tintype

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: If there’s an area I am a bit completist in my collecting it would be Felix photos. Really, no early 20th century photo of someone posing with a Felix (of any size) is beneath my notice and consideration. Quite simply, I want them all.

As a result, in a safely dark corner of the apartment, in a hall (to the extent that one room can have a hall, but I will discuss that another time) near the bathroom a number of these tintypes hold court. I have written about some of them before, (posts can be read here and here) and some are clearer than others. I bought a collection of them from a reader that were remarkably clear (read about that here), but most are variations on murky.

Today’s photo is pretty much on the far end of overexposed and slowly over time sinking further into obscurity. Some readers know that I have made early process photographs and know the technique for tintypes (also known as ferrotypes) reasonably well.

From a collection of Katoomba photos I purchased as a lot from a reader. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

As I understand it, these tintypes which were made at beachside resorts, carnivals and the like, were usually made and developed on site in what amounted to a bucket of chemicals and then water to wash them off. As the chemicals became exhausted and the water dirtier the chemicals and the image became more fugitive. Over time (let’s face it, this is about 100 years old) the chemicals which were never properly set or washed off, continue to react to light and the image gets darker and more obscure. While tintypes were waning in popularity by the 1920’s (a period while Felix’s fame was ascending) this remained a technique for roving photographers and seaside pics for another couple of decades. (And not just Felix of course – Mickey was another favorite as far as I can see.)

A closer look. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Shown here in this post (close up above) this image has been lightened and enhanced some and sadly what you are seeing is clearer than what you’d get with the naked eye by a fair amount. While I can make out this little girl sitting in a chair in her finest, dress, coat and hat, Maryjanes and ankle socks barely visible, I cannot see what she is holding in her hand and I do wonder. The background she is posed against is too faded to see.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection. Featured in an early 2014 post.

Her other arm is of course around this nice big Felix. He’s a bit unusual actually, full circle eyes and smaller ears than most. For the record, he doesn’t look like any of the others I have in my half dozen tintypes of this kind on the wall presently. (See the one above however, which I briefly thought might be the same. Kim pointed out that the eyes are further apart though. I had to dig in my collection for it.) However, the large number of my tintypes are from Australia, several from a park in Katoomba, and this one hails from England, precise location also lost to us. I have another (equally fuzzy) one that is similar and also with a location unknown, but the Felix is different so it isn’t the same setup.

It’s hard to say why I have such a passion for these pics and rescuing them to reside here in the Pictorama archive. The postcard photos are easier to understand I guess. But somehow the appeal of these little tintypes which have been passed down through the decades of people cuddling up to Felix to remember a beachside holiday now long passed have also earned my devotion.

Dating Felix

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: There is an online antique store where, as part of my maniacal collecting mania, I have signed up for notification on a variety of cat and Felix related items. Every morning I receive one or two emails from them and wade dutifully through a variety of somewhat sad or uninteresting items. Annoyingly, on the few occasions something wonderful appeared it was already sold which made me a bit crazy – you can imagine. Simply stated, the in general the algorithm has not been kind to me. However, the other morning I rolled over in bed and flipped through my email and found this item which I managed to snatch up before my first cup of coffee.

Unlike many things executed in a pre-caffeinated state, I did not regret the decision when this showed up in the mail the other day. It is easy to see why this sprightly Felix has made it through the decades.

Felix would have sported a replaceable calendar and sadly we are not even left with an outdated example. I do wonder a bit if it showed each day of the year to be torn off or a tiny version of the month. I was unable to find other examples online so for now the mystery remains. Felix is cut out of a lightweight wood with his visage firmly affixed on. There is a sturdy metal stand on the back which makes it stand upright. In pencil, noted neatly in script on the back it says, No 29 11- Last one.

Back of Felix calendar.

This fine fellow traveled to the shores of Pictorama from Great Britain, as do so many interesting Felix objects. He is deep in his thinking position and giving us a charming roguish side glance. While he is somewhat off model, he has some of that early charming squared-offness that I am especially fond of. He paces atop a tiny brick wall and there is a tiny window of sky behind him. Even his pointy ears survive intact. I would find this jolly Felix very cheerful on my desk daily and delightful to travel through the year with him.

I personally mark the passage of time with a small wall calendar and the help of Outlook on my computer and phone. I am a visual person who often needs to look at how a whole month lays out in order to plan activities and workflow – in my work life I have always been that way as I figure drop dates for invitations and save-the-dates or plan to manage a project.

Truly delightful 3-D cat calendar I found online this morning which, sadly, is not in the Pictorama collection – yet!

The paper calendar generally helps with planning while Outlook keeps me on the straight and narrow for each day which in an early incarnation would have been a separate paper calendar. The home version is a small wall calendar from the Metropolitan Museum which neatly fits on the side of a bookcase across from where I sit now, which is also the nexus of Kim and computer; at work it is a free calendar, of the same size, gratis the New Yorker, in New Jersey it is a series of animal photos from a wildlife charity mom gave to. That calendar, which used to keep notes mostly on docs coming and going, now tracks the arrival of various workmen and contractors which seem to stream endlessly there.

Utility wall calendar here in NYC.

In my early working days I didn’t have enough money to embrace the File-o-Fax concept of the handsome holder and refillable interior. I employed dull looking, less expensive daily planners. I never kept them, nor have I been a journal keeper, so my comings and goings have drifted infinitely into the past which I think is just fine indeed. As we know, regardless of how we track it we cannot tame it, slow or speed it up, time continues march along at its own pace.

Match

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Sometimes it is easy to forget that the purview of Pictorama is a cat one, although frequently a predominantly black cat and a Felix one. Today’s item crossed my path on Instagram, being sold by an antique store in Texas (http://www.getcuriosities.com) and whose denizens have become friends who keep an eye out for Felix-y and other cat items for me. Although Jason hadn’t lined me up for it I don’t think he was surprised when I reached out. It was inexpensive and admittedly purchased on the fly while I should have been doing other things.

I like this little fellow. As far as I can tell he hung on a wall where he offered matches and I suspect that the bit under his chin was once a place you could strike said matches now gone. Such wall hanging holders for matches, for use and those which were spent, proliferated at a time before mine yet I am fond of them.

Kitty is made of light balsa type wood and has shiny eyes. His tail is where he hangs from and you can imagine that you are seeing a whole cat condensed into a front view, tail in the air behind him. While simple I think he was mass produced rather than homemade.

I wrote about this match holder in a 2020 post – I think it also came from the crew @Curiositiesantiques. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Matches were a daily need when gas stoves required regular lighting this way and of course that was long before the current demonization of gas stoves. (Of all the hazards of exposure in my life I continue to throw caution to the wind and happily embrace my crisply roasted veggies and sautéed comestibles with gas stoves and ovens both here in New York and at the house in New Jersey. In Manhattan our building just completed a six month turn off of our gas in order to check the lines and it was recently, joyfully, reinstated. A post on preparing for that period of privation can be found here.) I imagine a certain amount of lighting cigarettes probably also went on and matches in a time before inexpensive and ubiquitous lighters were handy to have.

Decorative cat matches in the Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Wooden matches, the type that I imagine would have most likely lived in kitty, were of course the sturdy workhorse over the books of them that you carried if you didn’t carry a lighter. (Matchbooks can be delightful cat items as well and both posts on matchbook art and match safes can be found here and here.) I keep some in the house in case the gas does need re-lighting on the stove pilot light and because they are easily lit in general.

There’s something comforting about the fact that these boxes of wooden matches can still be purchased and are pretty much identical to the boxes I would have seen as a kid. There are special devices for lighting your stove, but I favor matches whether they are held by kitty or not.

Halloween in June – a Find!

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Among the casualties of recent months, while I was spending more time in New Jersey with my mom, has been neglecting my collecting passion. While I did continue to buy this and that (mostly on the occasional scroll through my IG feed), the items then often wandered into Deitch Studio only to be unpacked and put away with less than the usual consideration.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Therefore, these days now one occasionally rises to the surface, like this noisemaker, with no real memory of where it hails from. I believe it was a part of a small group buy of Halloween items or one I just added onto a buy. I am very entertained by it, but doesn’t seem like an item I would have bought on its own. Nonetheless, I am pleased to find it this morning, tucked on a shelf, patiently waiting its turn to bask in the light of a Pictorama post.

Turn up the sound for Kim playing

The sound of this noisemaker made both of the cats here a bit crazy this morning when I gave it a spin. Kim and I were discussing how, regardless of its actual age, the design seems like it could go back to 1900 or earlier. However, I found a website (Lisa Morton) however which says that although noise makers of this type, called rachet style noisemakers, were found in Germany earlier they became popular in this country in the 1920’s. She says wood ones like this were produced until the 1950’s when they shifted to tin. (To this day one can find a tin and plastic variation sold on the street for New Year’s Eve here in Manhattan, along with old fashion tin horns!)

The black cat version – although this is a silent fellow. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection from a 2021 post.

Noisemakers were designed to chase ghosts and the bogeyman away, an essential to staying safe on Halloween when you were a child. They were an inexpensive accessory addition to the Halloween celebration. I will say that my quiet loving parents never introduced me and my siblings to the simple pleasures of noisemakers. We can draw our own conclusions about that.

Mine here has an odd looking pumpkin head which seems to sport a sort of spotted mushroom cap. (Were he larger I think he’d be a bit frightening or at least creepy in his own right.) He still bears his crisp black paper ruff. The handle is worn very smooth from many years of hands handling.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection also from a 2021 post.

My foray onto the web researching a bit about Halloween turned up this sort of fascinating reference for the origin of jack-o-lanterns (wowza!) came from as below:

The legend of the most familiar Hallowe’en symbol–a lighted pumpkin–comes from a tale of an old Irish miser named Jack. Jack made several pacts with the devil. He also tricked the devil. When he died, he could not get into Heaven for his sins and because he had tricked the devil, he could not get into Hell. The Devil gave him a coal and Jack placed it in a hollowed out turnip, which lit his way as he wandered the earth until Judgment Day.

(More from this vintage Halloween collecting site can be found here.)

Being a black cat collector I am very Halloween adjacent without really being a Halloween collector. (Some of my other Halloween posts can be found here, here and here.) Halloween collecting is glorious and in another life I would collect everything from the early costumes (still holding out for a great black cat or Felix costume however) to paper decorations. For now though, Pictorama will mostly stay in its black cat lane with only occasional forays into the broader world of Halloween treats and tricks.

Felix Pipe Dream

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: A friend shared his pic of this nifty item months ago and I was full of admiration. Despite a rather robust program of constantly searching for early Felix ephemera and toys over several decades had never uncovered this rarified item. Therefore when one turned up on eBay it was a great surprise and after some careful deliberation and no idea how much it would sell for I managed to purchase it. In the end it went for a surprisingly reasonable price and found its way to the Pictorama Felix haven.

There are no tracks for these that I can find online. I thought the one belonging to my friend was perhaps a one of a kind, handmade item although it would require some craftsmanship. I still think there is a chance these are handmade and homemade.

A frame grab from an unidentified early Felix cartoon.

It is my thought that instructions for making such items were available and the somewhat ambitious home woodworker might have assembled them over a series of weekend afternoons and evenings. (I have a vision of some gent sitting around after dinner putting the finishing touches on this, circa 1930. Smells of my grandfather’s workshop rise unbidden in my mind from childhood – although while very handy, he was not to my knowledge, a Felix fan.)

Back of pipe rack, hooks for hanging attached at top corners.

While this may not have been a mass produced item, Felix himself was known to sport a pipe and there is at least one wooden toy where he displays one and a film or two where he is having a smoke of one kind or another…Kim reports having seen one where he gets stoned smoking a hookah in Chinatown which we have not yet turned up.

Felix toy not in Pictorama collection – I like the mismatched feet! My version of this toy does not have evidence of a pipe.

While we have no shiny beloved pipes to perch in here I would like to find a spot to hang it so I can admire it daily. As you can see, hooks have been provided although I worry a tad about carefully threading wire through these and gently hanging it in a quiet corner of the apartment – as if such a thing exists in our two rooms.

For those of you who know that I will inherit my mom’s house in New Jersey, yes, I am indeed considering how toy and other overflow might make its way there. However, there are five curious felines who roam that house with impunity, so at least for now, soft toys that could tempt kitty claws will remain in Manhattan where the cats live in close quarters with us everyday.

Reddy, Set, Go!

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: This might best be described as a you may never have seen it coming post, but I do like to mix things up occasionally and these earrings were a recent unusual acquisition.

I believe my introduction to Reddy Kilowatt was the lightbulb lamp. I can’t now remember if I saw it on American Pickers or if it was an auction – I want to say I saw it both ways maybe and just can’t remember which first. I fell hard for it, but me and extremely fragile objects like this don’t have a promising future so I never pursued ownership of one especially at the rarified prices these fetch. Still, a seed of fascination was born.

Listing photo from a Hake’s sale catalogue.

I am surprised to learn that Reddy was designed all the way back in 1926, hailing from Alabama as a commercial ploy to increase electric consumption. (Yes, it is hard to imagine a time when we perceived the need to increase our use of electricity.) Wikipedia says he was imagined as an “electrical servant” and notes that his ears are wall sockets and of course his nose a light bulb. It is interesting to find that his image is still currently under copyright.

Also via the Hake’s listing.

As for the earrings, I was late to stumble on a sale by one of my favorite sellers on Instagram a few months ago (I think it was a @marsh.and.meadow.overflow sale) and realized that I had just missed these rather splendid Reddy Kilowatt earrings. I had never seen this rarified item before and I had a significant ping! of disappointment. Much to my surprise and delight howevr, this pair which sports their original card, turned up in my feed about a month later via @oldghostsofhollywood who happily sent them right off to me.

From the Reddy Kilowatt comic book?

As someone who cannot wear pierced earrings I was additionally pleased that these earrings re screwbacks so I can actually wear Reddy. The front of the card reminds you that Reddy is, The Mighty Atom and the Symbol of Your Investor-Owned Utility Company. Inside he greets you, Hello: I’m Reddy Kilowatt, your good Electric Servant who works long hours for low, low wages. Just think of the many jobs I do in YOUR home…office..farm…store or plant…then think of how little each job costs! The copyright here is 1955.

Inside of earring card. Pams-Pictorama.com collection.
Back of card.

He is also Your Favorite “Pin-Up” and on the back it reads, I’m a Busy Little Atom, I split myself in two and multiply as many times as I have jobs to do! I’ll work for you for pennies, I’m fast, efficient, steady…so any time…to ease your work – Just “plug in,” folks – I’m Reddy! Your Electric Servant!…

When I revealed today’s topic to Kim he shared that there was a Reddy Kilowatt comic book of some note. Although our research did not turn up one that precisely matched his memory, there was indeed a comic book which came out in 1946 as an EC giveaway. Stories and art are identified as by Del Porter and others in one listing. I am told that the book relates Reddy’s story from ancient times until modern day and evidently includes a special Reddy Kilowatt polka complete with music. A reprint seems to team him with the story of Thomas Edison in another edition.

Not in Pams-Pictorama.com collection.

The post war period created an opportunity for increased electric usage and Reddy grew in evidence with a proliferation of trinkets (tie, stick and lapel pins, cuff links and bracelets are all available online) and a litany of other giveaways. Disney was approached for a cartoon in ’43 which never moved forward and it was Walter Lanz who brought him to animated life in a short film which came out in March of 1946 and the comic book was actually produced in conjunction with this film.

Page from the comic book which is available on various sites online.

Wikipedia says that there was an attempt to trot Reddy back out in the 1970’s as a mascot for energy conservation, but somehow this spiffy little energy spendthrift dynamo could not make the transformation and he did not achieve renewed fame in his new role.

White Cat Union Suits

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: The brilliant advertising of the Black Cat Hosiery Company, brought to us by the fine folks in Kenosha, Wisconsin, is sort of a square one for the kind of cat collecting I do. While this is only one of several pieces I have managed to acquired (you can find a post about the first one here), given the opportunity (and unlimited funds – I am not alone in my affection for it and it is generally pricey) I would collect deeply in this area and more or less surround myself with it.

In another prior post (which can be found here) I briefly cover the history of this company and its cat committed advertising campaign. Better known for its smiling black cats and stockings, the white kitty takes over (appropriately) for the union suits.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

I have opined on how the smiling black cat in their advertising looks remarkably like our fine feline fellow, Blackie. This white cat reminds me of a little white rescue cat my mom had many years ago named Kitsy. An all white cat, she was not deaf like many, and she was a bit neurotic. I don’t actually remember her origin story, nor much about her tenure – there was a wealth of cats at that time – but she was most remarkable and memorable for being extremely petit, almost miniature.

This hand mirror crossed my path a few weeks ago and I snatched it up. Here our smiling white kitty sits atop a cushion that reminds us it is a trade mark. While a black cat was employed to implore us to purchase black stockings and socks, this feline urges us to Buy White Cat Union Suits. He or she smiles benignly over a big black bow. Comically somehow the all white kit does bring a union suit to mind. For a less than sexy item, this cat does a pretty good come hither appeal.

Back of damaged mirror.

Sadly the image is a bit damaged on the front of the mirror and the back no longer has enough detailed reflective space for most folks to apply lipstick. (Over many years I have developed a talent for applying lipstick without a mirror. Is this a good idea? I don’t know, but I have done it for years. Of course I would want a nifty little mirror like this to pull out if I needed one.)

Do people still wear union suits? A Google search offers you choices to buy (mostly red!), but also tells us these were mostly popular in the late 19th and early 20th century. I guess houses were colder. As someone who has rejected the jumpsuit craze for women repeatedly over the years (having to disrobe every time I go to the bathroom is just too much work for me) I cannot see embracing the all-in-one to wear – cat advertising notwithstanding.

Las Fajas Robert, or Robert’s Girdles

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Continuing with my weekend theme of cardboard kitties, I present this splendid and unusual Felix as cardboard cat advertisement which comes to me from a friend north of the border with whom I exchange Felix pleasantries on an ongoing basis. He sells me the occasional item as well and this one came into the house a month or so ago.

I find this big footed slightly off-model fellow endearing. He is neither exactly the very round later designed Felix we are familiar with, nor the squared off early version, but somehow between and both. His claw paws are a bit more pronounced than I think is generally the order of Felix. Sort of like Felix’s kissing cousin.

He is from South America, Uruguay evidently. Latin America seemed to be fond of Felix and I think one could put together an interesting collection of off-model toys and advertisements hailing from this part of the world. (I don’t have many but posts with two other examples can be found here and here.)

This one advertises a child’s laxative! Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

And as evidenced by this card, Felix was employed to hawk a wide variety of disparate things. Here he is shilling for girdles. All my translations are owing to Google and on the front it seems he says, Ma’am, do you know Robert’s Girdles?

And on the back, Surely yes, but if it were not so, all you have to do is grant me the honor of a visit to the Orthopedics Section where you will find any type of girdle either to dress or to correct the various topsis of the stomach. Always demand the Robert Antonio Rebollo (Casa Quadri) Avda. 18 de Julio 929 Rio Branco 1377. And on his feet: Imprinta German Urugaya Poisindu 756 m Bavio Maeso Prapanganda. (I don’t know where topsis of the stomach came from, but it is so descriptive I decided to leave it. Seems to me topsis of the stomach is something you have after you put the girdle on and I know I have experienced it.) Someone has written Felix in faded pencil at the top.

Back of the card – some of you folks might do a better translation. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

There is no way to know the age of the card. Girdles went largely out of fashion in the late 1960’s in this country. (They have returned in the form of shape wear now, a girdle by a different name and with contemporary fabrics. For those of you who have not experienced it, this is still an act of forcing your body like a round peg into a square hole of fabric.) The card could be from any period when Felix was popular enough to press into service.

He’s about eight inches high and made of a medium weight cardboard. There are no marks or indications that he would have hung somewhere, nor a way for him to stand so I guess these were just hand outs. He is a bit large as calling cards go though, but despite some fold marks on his legs he survives in good condition. Someone tucked him away safely and we will assume it was his Felix-y charm, not the need to remember where to get a good girdle.

Cardboard Cats

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: This is one of two very special cardboard kitties I have to offer at the moment, purchased in recent months but who have not yet had their premiere here at Pictorama. First I focus on this nifty fellow.

I have seen him offered once or twice before and chased him around the internet some, but never acquiring him. Then he fell in my lap at a most unexpected moment, late one hectic night a few weeks ago when I was having a quick look at my phone and found him being offered to my by my Mid-west maven, Miss Molly (@missmollysantiques) via Instagram. I scooped up some other fine Halloween decorations (one from a few weeks ago can be found here), however this one interests me in part because he’s almost not quite a Halloween fellow, although I assume that is his origin. A black cat for all seasons in my book.

Kitty expanded for posing here on Kim’s desk. Pams-Pictorama.com collection.

He offers only that he was Made in the USA by way of markings and is small, only about 12 inches. His monochromatic black and white works for me for being bold with his big what bow which makes me think of a tuxedo kitty. He bares his fangs though and looks reasonably fierce for a guy in a bow and his tail curls up behind him in a question mark. Despite his snarl he has a certain come hither charm.

The back side of Kitty flat. A bit of crayon here from an errant child! Not visible when displayed however. Pams-Pictorama.com.

It is the design of Mr. Kitty that makes him special. For storage he lies flat, but at the bottom we are encouraged to Push in and fold back to form easel. This takes a few minutes to exactly figure out, but then you do and an accordion middle made of a honeycomb of tissue paper allows him to expand into an almost 3-D feline, using his tail for extra ballast.

What exact role he was intended to play I am unsure, as his size makes him a bit small as Halloween decor goes. However with his neat design and snappy appearance he rates a place at my table any day of the year.

Transformation

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: The last of the Mom posts today, for now anyway.

It is Thursday night and I am back in New Jersey. I worked remotely today and will spend tomorrow preparing for a repast for mom on Saturday – 40-50 people over several hours stopping by to chat and have a nosh. The resident cats are surrounding and circling me endlessly since my arrival last night.

The cat family greeting.

Since my mom died almost three weeks ago I seem to live in a state that is strangely and endlessly anxious. I think it is a constant unconscious feeling that I am forgetting to check on her nagging at the back of my mind. Also a terrible sense of always feeling like I am in the wrong place, a perpetual fish out of water. Being back at the house has eased this slightly, perhaps because I am here with the specific mission of getting ready to receive people on Saturday. Or maybe it is being here and forcing my brain and subconscious to accept that mom is no longer here to be cared for.

Stormy, dubbed Cat of Mystery by me, is starting to get a bit more social. She also likes to sit in the window.

Friday and a day of cleaning, shopping and cooking. I thought the house had been deep cleaned right after mom died, but friends showed up today and cleaned some more in preparation for tomorrow. Many hands did make for lighter work and the care of all these women surrounds me in a way that makes me feel like a kid again. In the process of the many cleanings and work that has been done the house is slowly becoming more of a home again, the bed no longer in the kitchen, the roar of the oxygen tank with the cord I was always afraid of tripping over gone.

Peaches.

A certain Pam-ness is starting to exert itself undeniably. Paintings brought up from the basement where they were in exile for some reason. A litany of small repairs are being made. I am having the black front door painted red, just for fun. Circus lights now festoon the back deck. Making it my own was what mom wanted and I believe she approves.

The garden is blooming early this year. Although mom never was able to set foot in it she enjoyed greatly it from the windows and via a series of recordings made for her to celebrate each phase of each season. She’d watch these again and again and share them with friends and family. (Here is a video from last spring that is still up.) Everyone remarks on the beauty of the backyard.

The peonies

The peonies I gave her several years ago are already bursting as are her roses. Mom was good with roses in an effortless way. Did she just know good spots for them? I never remember her fussing over them especially. My nascent herb garden and tomato plants are slowly gaining traction. A dahlia is shooting up in a planter. Unclear though if I have inherited the green thumb or just having some beginners luck as well as guidance from gifted gardening friends.

The roses in the backyard.

Tomorrow some family and a number of her friends will raise a glass to her and nibble on vast piles of fruit salad, cheese sandwiches and cupcakes we purchased and assembled today.

Sunday. Well, it rained hard all day. I said it was because mom was looking on and was worried about the cats getting out with people coming and going. Kim showed up early and was introduced to Hobo who received his third meal of the day from him. That cat must have a hollow leg.

Hobo on meal number one of three yesterday, at about 6:30 AM.

The plant people were all pleased about the rain as we haven’t had much and being plant people we walked out in the garden despite the rain. The animal folks were in a group talking about the rescue of a fawn that was unfolding and some left to go help with that. (Mom’s obit with information about her work in animal rescue and welfare can be found here.)

Family, caregivers and one of our neighbors all discovered people in common and mingled and marveled over the few degrees of separation that were unfolding as I guess they do in smallish towns. Like a wedding I don’t spend enough time with any one person while trying to get to all.

I woke up, exhausted this morning, back here in Manhattan, with Kim and cats. (It is Kim’s birthday – shout out to him! We sang a sloppy Happy Birthday over cupcakes to him at the end of the party yesterday.)

The eggshell this layer of protection I felt during mom’s last months has been broken and my time in that liminal space has ended. It’s a hard finding myself back out in the world again with new responsibilities as well as the old ones rushing back in. It is lonely without her, but she left me with new friends and renewed connections. I am so grateful for their ongoing ministrations. The page turns and the next chapter starts now.