Mary Lee sat on her favorite white rocker watching the day turn to dusk. Her grey curls has begun to hung down low on her forehead. The summer air was still warm. The temperature earlier in the day had been hot and steamy.
Beside sat Frank her husband of fifty years. He had starting to doze in his rocker. Mary Lee loved to listen to the crickets chipping and Frank’s light snore fill the air around her.
She loved this time of day when things slowed down and she could just remember.
Mary Lee had such wonderful things to remember.
She and Frank had met in college. He was football player and she was the math tutor that helped him pass the required math classes for his major. Frank was actually a very good student. He just needed someone to go over things with him a few times. Frank loved to say that had met over the pluses and minuses.
After college they had gotten married and moved to Simpsonville, South Carolina. It was a small factory town. Frank had gotten a job in the business office of one of the factories and Mary Lee had worked as a bookkeeper for the local elementary school.
They had lived in a small house and saved money for several years to move to this big old Victorian on main street. On Sunday nights they had walked by this house and dreamed it would one day be theirs.
Mary Lee had fretted about the train tracks that lay only 100 yards away. Would it be a dangerous place to raises the children they would have? Frank had assured her that the picket fence around the house would be a deterrent and the backyard is where their children would want to be to play ball and chase butterflies.
Chiildren came quickly once they had moved into their dream house. First Sarah arrived and then Martha. They had hope for a boy too, but God closed that door and they had just the two girls.
Sarah and Martha had become their world. Mary Lee stayed home to raise them. She loved taking care of them.
On laundry day she enjoyed hanging their little dresses up on the clothes line in the backyard. The girls loved to grab onto the drying clothes and spin the circular clothes line around and around.
There had been many hours of creating special cookies and pies for dinner along with tiny cookie bites or fruit tarts made with the leftover dough.
The girls had loved to ride their bikes and trikes all over the yard. One would have thought the hard Carolina dirt and lumpy grass would have been hard for them to ride on, but it hadn’t held them back.
Mary Lee slowed her rocking and shock her head sadly remembering how quickly time has passed.
It seemed to her one fall that the girls had been in elementary school and by spring they were all grown up and beginning families of their own. How that had happened? Mary Lee couldn’t recall. It seemed like they went from little girls to ladies in mere minutes.
Each of the girls had stayed in town. They lived with their husbands and children not faraway. Mary Lee and Frank saw them often.
Mary Lee loved being a grandmother. She loved getting to see her girls as moms. They were wonderful moms.
Rocked slowly back and forth again. Mary Lee glanced across the yard at a tricycle covered in green by the tree near the front gate. One of the girls and forgotten to put it away one night and there is had stayed.
Frank had offered to take it out of the green tangle that surrounded it and Mary Lee had insisted that it stay. When he had asked her about it ,she had replied that it was a lesson. Frank had wanted to know about the lesson the tricycle had taught her. He loved to listen to her share her thoughts.
“The lesson,” she replied, “is that time is fleeting. You need to enjoy each moment and cherish each memory. That tricycle reminds me of our girls when they were little and loved to ride. It makes try to guess what must have caught their attention and drew them away from it and on to something else. It reminds me that for a time the white picket fence contained their whole world and they couldn’t bike beyond it.
Frank had a tear drop slowly from his eye after she shared the tricycles importance and agree that it needed to stay right where it was.
Mary Lee now wiped at tear from her eye. What a wonderful memories she had to think back on! What a wonderful lessons she had learned from them
End Note:
We walked a house on the 4th of July and I snapped a picture of this tricycle tangled near the tree. I had know ideas what story I would be able to weave based on it. I just knew there was one. It took most of this month to find Mary Lee and glean what reason there might have been for tricycle to be there.
I have no idea who lives in this house or why the tricycle is there. I am thankful that it was. I have loved getting to know Mary Lee and her story this month.
This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday!
Oh my goodness..this is the sweetest story! We all need a quick reminder sometime to stop and enjoy our little ones. It is so true that time is passing by so quickly. I can’t believe how big my little girl is getting. Thanks for making my day!
Well thank you for making me cry first thing in the morning. My daughter starts Kindergarten on Wednesday and I’ve already been thinking about how the first 6 years of her life have flown by. Sniff, sniff.
Lovely story though.
Hope you’ll come visit me at my new home: http://mydestinysharinghope.com/
(I stole your button.)
Love!
Beth
That was such a great story to with a great picture. I want to be like Mary Lee and try to enjoy and cherish every moment!
This was such a beautiful story and a great reminder that life goes by so fast and that we need to stop and enjoy the moments we have with our kids. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful story 🙂
I love that Mary Lee’s story came from a picture you took in your own explorations. A wonderful story!
This is so beautiful. The characters really came alive to me. Great reminder to enjoy each moment.
I adore the idea of thinking about what might have drawn her away from her tricycle. It also makes me a bit sad because I terribly miss having little ones around.
What a wonderful story! Life does tend to fly by rather quickly.
What an amazing story. And the picture is darling. Good job!
That one made me cry. I timely reminder.
Blessings,
Dawn
I loved how you took the photo and made a story–beautiful. I’m sure I’ll look back on these years fondly.
so sweet!!
Very nice post. Amazing how a simple photo could become a story. I am visiting from Jenny Matlock. xo
This is such a wonderful, poignant story. I am so glad you’ve met Mary Lee and shared her story with us.
Thank you for sharing Mary Lee with us!
Great writing! Love the story and the lesson it can teach us all 🙂
I’m a sentimental old fool, so I thoroughly enjoyed the story. Believe it or not, I took my kids old scooters and bikes and put them around the backyard as yard art. Things are propped up against trees and I like it!
This was a beautiful story and an important reminder that life passes by so quickly… we need to live everyday like it is our last.
My 4 children are all grown. youngest is 40 and oldest would of been 50…Children grow up so Quickly . That is why it’s so important to make memories while they are still with you. Delightful story.. Loved It ~!
Have a Blessed Tiggeriffic Day~! ta ta for now from Iowa:)
Oh my gosh…what a beautiful story! Hey girl…I have missed you. I am back up on my new site but the blogrolls and RSS feed had to be redirected. If you update your blogroll to the http://tammystwocents.com URL I will be back up to date on your blogroll. So busy trying to get everything straightened out. You can read through my posts to catch up since I have only been up for 2 weeks now. Talk to you soon girl! 🙂
What a lovely story. I hope there will be more. As a grandmother who misses her wee grandsons this story had meaning for me.
How lovely!
Thanks for stopping by 🙂
I really enjoyed this. Just lovely.
=)
I love this! It’s fun to see you branch out a little in a new direction!!!
xxoo,
RMW
Oh wow, what a great story and perfect picture! I can’t wait to read what else you write!!
xo
Cindy
A beautiful story. Thank you for sharing it.
What a poignant tale.
I had a lump in my throat reading it.
In the hustle and bustle of life, we sometimes forget to take just a moment to appreciate what life has bestowed on is. My wife & I don’t have children, but we have spent many a night reminiscing about our childhoods and all the wonderful memories we have collected & made from life in general.
Beautifully told & the perfect photo.
My thanks for the visit too.
What a dear story – well done!
Love that story! Just beautiful and an excellent reminder! And the pic is amazing!
What a beautiful story. I’m glad you took your time creating it because it was well worth the wait. I’m going to keep a mental image of that tangled-up tricycle as a reminder to slow down enough to enjoy the important things of life.
I truly enjoyed reading this story… beautiful. Thank you for sharing it. 🙂
What a creative and touching post! You’re right on at least two counts… your photo begs to have a story told about it and tempus fugit. As I was packing this week I came across a box full of copies of my own letters and I was bit disappointed in myself for having lamented the passing of time as an almost standard opening line for decades! (Not that I sat and read them all, LOL!)
What a wonderful story and your photo you took was a great inspiration. That mystery behind the covered tricycle does beg to be told :o)
Blessings & Aloha!
Thank you so very much for stopping by and for your sweet comment. Your wonderful blog reminds me of the many wonderful adventures and memories spent with our children as they have grown inspired me to be sure I will again do fun projects and have sweet moments… but this time with their children…our future grandbabies :o)
Fantastic story, and such a beautiful reminder to cherish our little ones or any little ones for that matter! They do grow too fast..
What an outstanding link!
I loved this story and the perfect photo illustration.
This was just perfect.
Hugs and A+
creative.
beautiful story, thanks for sharing.
beautiful!
just beautiful…
i think you should print it and leave it at their door…
i wonder what their reason was…
hmmmmmmmmmmm
great story! i was hooked!
i love how your brain works. i really like the idea of trying to think what would have made the child leave the tricycle. lovely story.