They say English is hard to grasp for those for whom it is not their mother tongue... take the word 'fall' appropriate for this Autumnal season and you will understand why...
Fall for - be captivated or deceived by
Fall about - be helpless - usually with mirth
Fall out - quarrel; leave ranks; airborne radioactive substance from nuclear explosion
Fall through - fail to obtain or reach a goal; unplanned descent
Fall down - not stay upright, collapse
Fall Guy - easy victim, scapegoat
Fall on - fail; assault; come across hard times; get lucky; kill oneself
Fall in - take place in line; collaborate with others; begin a conversation;lapse or revert; a specified state
Fall foul of - come into collision with; quarrel with
Fall off the wagon - take up a bad habit/vice once again
Fall short - be shortof, or not have sufficient; not reach intended target/market/goal
Fall from grace - lose favor or popular status; act in a way that loses respect of others
Fall behind - lag, tarry to the rear; slip backwards; or... the expansion of the gluteous maximus from too much sitting around after Thanksgiving.....
Happy TT
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
The passion found among the grief
You know the old saying that Fact is Stranger than Fiction.... Not so much as stranger in this case more a parallel to it.
On going through an old metal box(yep, black painted metal old file lock box) I came across some letters (no, they weren't tied up together with a faded ribbon).
One was a small note written to my maternal great grandmother by her eldest son, Jason, as he left New Zealand for the Boer War, to "The Mother of his heart"- a hard working mother who nursed her invalid miner husband and cared for their 13 (yep thirteen surviving) children. He returned, fought with my grandfather on the Somme and came back from that.
The other a card sent to my grandmother by my grandfather from the Somme. They really did say... "Tomorrow we go over the top again, Jason and Tom are with me." (Sadly, Tom didn't return from over the top. I can still remember the sadness in my grandfather's eyes when he spoke of Tom.)
There was also a poem written in copperplate writing to my paternal grandmother from an admirer on the announcement of her "intention to marry" to my grandfather.
" Oh, the heartfelt sorrow knowing I shall not gaze upon your face
As you sit across from me at morning grace
For no grace can find the words to honor your beauty
Or mirror the depths of despair within my soul"
Tissues anyone?
On going through an old metal box(yep, black painted metal old file lock box) I came across some letters (no, they weren't tied up together with a faded ribbon).
One was a small note written to my maternal great grandmother by her eldest son, Jason, as he left New Zealand for the Boer War, to "The Mother of his heart"- a hard working mother who nursed her invalid miner husband and cared for their 13 (yep thirteen surviving) children. He returned, fought with my grandfather on the Somme and came back from that.
The other a card sent to my grandmother by my grandfather from the Somme. They really did say... "Tomorrow we go over the top again, Jason and Tom are with me." (Sadly, Tom didn't return from over the top. I can still remember the sadness in my grandfather's eyes when he spoke of Tom.)
There was also a poem written in copperplate writing to my paternal grandmother from an admirer on the announcement of her "intention to marry" to my grandfather.
" Oh, the heartfelt sorrow knowing I shall not gaze upon your face
As you sit across from me at morning grace
For no grace can find the words to honor your beauty
Or mirror the depths of despair within my soul"
Tissues anyone?
Monday, October 8, 2007
"Hello God? What have you done with my mother?"
Hi to those of you popping back to see if I am back and functioning. I am but on different levels at present as I am coping with being robbed of my mother.
Since I last blogged, my sister and I have been to Atlantic Canada and New Zealand.
Sadly our mother who four months ago was independent and fully functioning has had to be put into full hospital care. The cruel thing about all this is that she had no stroke, no heart attack, no debilitating illness, only a fall in which she broke her arm and fully recovered from.
So the laughing, loving mother I left in June, who at 86 was driving her own car, cooking, gardening, and caring for herself and taking an active interest in life is gone, leaving a little wizened, vague, fully dependent person in her place. After her fall it was like she folded her wings and surrendered her old life. Depression and mild dementia, and physical frailty are the medical diagnosis. Only one of which can be treated.
Sadly, another cruel twist that fate has in store for her are lucid moments. This is when her condition distresses her, panic attacks set in and she needs constant reassurance that we will leave her where she is and not make her go home. The up side here is that she loves where she is and the people caring for her. The down side, she gets upset that my brother (who lives in Australia) and I haven't been to see her. She doesn't recall either of us being there with her. Or the visit of one of my daughters and her great grandson. Luckily I had the forethought to take photos of us all with her and stuck them on her wardrobe door so she can see we were all there.
It is very distressing being told she will never return to any resemblence of her old life , then having to go into her lovely home and dismantle a life time of her memories.
My advice, for what it is worth, is make sure you enjoy what time you have with your parents. Ring them today and tell them you are thinking of them and how much you love them and appreciate what they have done for you. Tomorrow might be too late.
Since I last blogged, my sister and I have been to Atlantic Canada and New Zealand.
Sadly our mother who four months ago was independent and fully functioning has had to be put into full hospital care. The cruel thing about all this is that she had no stroke, no heart attack, no debilitating illness, only a fall in which she broke her arm and fully recovered from.
So the laughing, loving mother I left in June, who at 86 was driving her own car, cooking, gardening, and caring for herself and taking an active interest in life is gone, leaving a little wizened, vague, fully dependent person in her place. After her fall it was like she folded her wings and surrendered her old life. Depression and mild dementia, and physical frailty are the medical diagnosis. Only one of which can be treated.
Sadly, another cruel twist that fate has in store for her are lucid moments. This is when her condition distresses her, panic attacks set in and she needs constant reassurance that we will leave her where she is and not make her go home. The up side here is that she loves where she is and the people caring for her. The down side, she gets upset that my brother (who lives in Australia) and I haven't been to see her. She doesn't recall either of us being there with her. Or the visit of one of my daughters and her great grandson. Luckily I had the forethought to take photos of us all with her and stuck them on her wardrobe door so she can see we were all there.
It is very distressing being told she will never return to any resemblence of her old life , then having to go into her lovely home and dismantle a life time of her memories.
My advice, for what it is worth, is make sure you enjoy what time you have with your parents. Ring them today and tell them you are thinking of them and how much you love them and appreciate what they have done for you. Tomorrow might be too late.
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