My weekend defined intergenerational. From rolling out of our driveway at 8:00 a.m. (a first, soon to be our norm) to set up wares as The Cupcake Lady at our local farm market (& fund-raiser for our college), to being stunned by the multi-gen performances in our community theater's production of The Secret Garden & (naturally) more of the same ages at the late night cast party, to last night's wedding of two dear young friends whose courtship has been tender touching uniquely them.
Would that everyone everywhere had my opportunities for intergenerational connection & joy. And am grateful to know how rare it's increasingly becoming so that I can glory in my everyday experience.
This afternoon, I can go to our community pool & see the line of kids sitting on the swimming pool wall, feet dangling in the water, waiting waiting waiting for the adult swim to be over so they can slip (splash jump dive) back in.
On Friday, we'll go to a picnic at the church (my cupcakes will supplement ice cream the church has provided since before I was a kid) that will find the West Lawn covered with every age imaginable.
Saturday, it will be time for more Cupcake Lady fun, for watching all the different ages having a grand time strolling the farm market tucked under the shade of glorious oak trees planted by a man I dearly loved & whose quality of mind delighted & awed. There will be the dogs having a grand time, the kids trying to decide between a cupcake or a sticky bun from Heather or a Be Well muffin or a scone (if Beth is with us). What I love most is seeing the adults - young through ancient - having a blast catching up with each other.
Am aware that the Bryn Athyn Bounty Farm Market is a Norman Rockwell painting, come alive. Exceptionally joyful Americana fun!
Almost forgot the Post Office! When I married my John, I gave up my Lockhart last name, my lifelong phone # & my Bryn Athyn home - no how, no way I was giving up my Bryn Athyn post office box #! Almost 26 years later, I still have it. Each March, it is my joy to pay the annual box office rent! Why continue to have a post office box ten minutes away from my home when we get home delivery here in Lower Southampton? The people. It's our hub. You never know who you'll run into heading in or out, who might breeze past as your fiddling with the combination to your box, who might be waiting with you in line for stamps or because you got a notice to call at window.
I might spend all day working with people who live in age-segrated housing, where the only young people are usually staff, but I get to come home every day through my little hometown.
Dipping down Fettersmill from Terwood still gives me a thrill, dropping down to the hard sharp right turn where the passenger side comes perilously close to the edge of the mill, where even John brings the car to a dead stop to peek around the corner, checking on traffic. Pause, check to see if any cars are about to pass, check the other side of the bridge for traffic, wait my turn, then cross, nip past the post office & up the hill.
From the time I head down Fettersmill, my head is bobbled with generations - ones that exist,ones long gone. The Rosenquist house, now Louise & Andy's. How many generations has the Merrell house seen? Remembering when Barr built the house at the point, now owned by someone I babysat. The - in every way - Good house. Lach's parking area is now the site of bike rides by Louis & Freya's great-grandchildren. Madame Ungerich's house, loving restored from once-derelict to gracious & welcoming. The stone house of one of my grannie client's grandparents, now Barry & Anita's. Past Ray's house, designed by Thaddeus Longstreth & for years featuring a Christmas tree that seemed to grow with through the roof - now in the tender care of his daughter. Then Glennpenny Farm comes up on my left - remember when Glenn & Joel lived there, then Cameron, then Hilary & friends, then... too many to remember. And the stretch of Pine Run Park on my right - the Whites still live in their house on the corner, across from what was Weaver's as well as Bob & Laurie's house.
It is a marvel to drive through one small town & know so many people who live & lived there. It is the way we are MEANT to live & rarely do these days.
Every day, I work with people who live far different lives. I bring what I can of my integrated life with me, from taking older friends out to meals in places where they see families, young parents & little children, grandparents with babies, to dog parks where all ages walk their pooches, to minor league ball games where families are scattered around the park, to Sunday concerts in my little hometown's equally little park. And every day I am grateful to have been born & raised in such a remarkable briar patch, a place that prepared me in so many ways to work with older friends, to help them live from fullness, to as expansively as they can.
It was a glorious weekend, layered with generation upon generation. Erik & Bernice (unseen, but in my heart) - Peter & Lisa - Anne & Erik - Justine & Jared - Rosalie ~ that intergenerational layering reflected back all around me, at Bounty, at the play & cast party, at the wedding. What joy to be feel the blessings, then reach similar blessings outward, drawing as many people as I can toward them, into them.
Intergenerational is a MAJOR buzz word these days for providing a balance of "elder care" - it's my norm. That is simply amazing. In May & early June, my typical week including connecting with the college & high school, putting on a "Movie & Martinellis" event for our local senior residence, being The Cupcake Lady, attending graduations & family parties & weddings.
What blessings flow through & around my life. Pretty good starting place for doing all I can to help others experience the same, don't you think?
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