Jade's Babblings

Okay, my mom's uncle, but still...

WORCESTER— William F. Donahue, 91, of Worcester, died Wednesday, July 12, 2006 in the UMass-Memorial Medical Center surrounded by his family. His wife of 36 years, Frances E. (Lavigne) Donahue, died in 1990.

He leaves three sons, Michael J. and his wife Linda N. Donahue of Worcester; William F. Donahue Jr. and his wife Kathleen of Chelmsford and Richard J. and his wife Sheila Donahue of Groton; four grandchildren, Patrick, Brian and Annie Donahue of Chelmsford, and Connor Donahue of Groton; and many nephews and nieces. His brother, John J. Donahue, and his sister, Dorothy M. Savage, predeceased him.

Bill was born in Worcester, son of Michael W. and Marie A. (Lemay) Donahue and lived in Worcester all his life. He graduated in 1933 from Commerce High School where he was President of the Blackfriars Dramatic Society.

He was a U.S. Army Air Force veteran of World War II and served in North Africa and throughout Italy. He was a sales representative for a division of the Procter & Gamble Co. for 33 years, retiring in 1979. He was responsible for some of its largest accounts in Massachusetts including Spag’s in Shrewsbury. Previously, he worked for the Worcester Electric Light Co. and the Worcester Powers Coke Co.

He was a member of Blessed Sacrament Church for 91 years. Among his many volunteer efforts at Blessed Sacrament, he served several terms on the Parish Council and assisted priests at parish funerals for many years including this year. He enjoyed golf and was a member for more than 50 years of Green Hill Country Club, where he registered a hole-in-one. He was a member of the Jewish Community Center for more than 20 years, where he swam regularly and developed many close friendships.

Bill was a devoted father and grandfather and was especially supportive of his sons in youth hockey, baseball and golf programs. As a true people person and family man, he touched the hearts of many people young and old and was loved by many.

Calling hours at the Athy Memorial Home, 111 Lancaster St., Worcester, are Friday, July 14 from 5 to 8 p.m. The funeral will be Saturday, July 15 from the funeral home with a Mass at 11 a.m. in Blessed Sacrament Church, Worcester. Burial will be in St. John's Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the American Cancer Society, 30 Speen St., Framingham 01701 or the Alzheimer’s Association, 311 Arsenal St., Watertown 02472.

I'm so annoyed right now. I was chatting on gmail and then I accidentally pressed one of my topbar favorites buttons and when I went to log back in to gmail it won't let me. I rebooted and everything. It just says it's loading and then freezes up. Grrr.

I am in a serious lack of sleep mode. I'm falling asleep just sitting here. I cancelled therapy for tonight because I don't have enough money so I'm going to go home and crash. My co workers were like, "Just don't go off your meds cuz then we'll have to go on them to deal with you." Haha. too bad I went off my meds before we left for Cali. I know, I know. Terribly irresponsible. I'm starting them up again on Saturday. It's just that they really knock me for a loop and I don't want to feel sick at work. I don't particularly want to feel sick on Saturday either. I've got plans for a serious day of relaxing with a friend of mine.

I was going to go to the 501st cook out at my friend's house but I guess that would be a bit awkward with John there and all and I dont' want to deal with the drama so whatever. I'll just go to the other smaller one later on. Either way, it'll be a good time.

We're supposed to do some duck tour through Boston in our star wars armor. I'm going as Boushh. Seth will be flying in that day so if he gets in on time we will be able to go to the event together which will be cool.

I keep thinking of when I picked him up at the aiport a couple weeks ago and I had my new favorite sweatshirt on and I lost it at Logan Aiport. Grr. and now it's out of stock from Hot Topic. I got that thing for 10 bucks. It rocked. :( So that's frustrating too. The little things annoy me when I'm low on sleep. I'm just gonna go home, clean up a bit, and totally crash for the night. Good bye everyone.

I've wanted to take this trip since my parents talked about their cross country honeymoon back in the 70's.

Liam clued me into the fact that i90 goes from Seattle to Boston. How cool is that? I haven't talked to Seth about it yet but it seems like a pretty easy route. And the way we'd be driving it will take us through the following states:
Washington (duh)
A tiny bit of Idaho
Lots of Montana
Some of Wyoming
South Dakota
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Tiny of of Illinois, Indiana and possible Michigan
Onto Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York
And then arrive in Massachusetts

So.... give me some ideas. What's some fun stuff to do in any of those states? I've found little things that are obvious like zoos and stuff, but I want to find the random things. World's biggest ball of string and stuff like that. I need ideas. We'll have five days to make the trip. Mapquest says it'll take us 44 hours driving straight through so that gives us a few stops to take in the sights. It's 3044.73 miles. That's insane. Glad it's not my car...

Here are some activities I've found so far. They mostly involve parks.
Close Encounters is a cool movie. My parents stopped here. There's lots of silent video of my mom waving.
Idaho falls zoo
wolves are cool
duh
they're bad lands
montana's kind of boring, huh?

The only other resources I'm going off of are routes besides i90, and these two - 1 and 2.

I'm obviously in need of suggestions. Anybody gone cross country before? Have any interesting sites I should check out?

At my uncle's calling hours over the winter a cousin of my mom's found out I worked at... the company I work at (lol) and actually said to me, "so what are you going to do to fix my stock prices?" because the company stock used to do really well and now....well, doesn't. I didn't even really know what to say to that. I know he was kidding, but....

Today I went through a toll booth on the good old masspike and the guy I handed my money to saw my work badge that I had on. "Oh, [insert company name here] huh? Man, their stock just keeps falling huh? I lost a lot of money on that. Ever since that [insert guy who helped start the company here] guy left seems like he took all the money with him."
This is the point where I start to drive away while saying "I'm sorry..." out the window. People are weird.

I had a lovely weekend. My friend Liam (he doesn't have his own myspace, but this is just as good cuz the music is nifty) met me in Boston on Saturday and we went to the aquarium. That place is much smaller than it was when I was little...
He had a new camera so there are a few really dorky pictures of me up if you want to see here, plus some aquarium pics as well of course. Then we decided to just walk around Boston. We had dinner here, but we did not eat with the creepy people in the picture. And after that we trekked back to my house (I had missed the commuter rail out by then) to watch Swingers (because everyone has to see Swingers at least once).

I felt kind of bad that I missed Seth's calls for most of the weekend, but I was super busy. I ended up talking to him around 11:30 and then fell asleep on the phone and woke up to that horrible dial tone beeping noise. Ick. He'll be out here in about 11 days though so that's pretty awesome.

I'm so tired this morning. Fell asleep on the pike again...
I'm skipping karate tonight because I'm sick (not from being tired either) and I'm just going to relax on the couch for a bit. Maybe go do laundry at my parents' house. I have a ton of it. I let it go for too long.

Oh, I saw "Pirates2" on Friday with Joel. That movie kicked ass. Finally, some good films in theaters again. Good.

I just put some music on and suddenly I'm in a pretty good mood. Beats listening to the [c]rap that the guy in the cubicle next to me is listening to. Time to go work on this case. Ooh, and maybe treat myself to a yummy twix bar from the vending machine. It's the little things... ;)

My mom wrote this amazing story. At least now I know where I get my love of writing from. This tale never fails to make me teary. I remember this cup from when I was little. Let me know if you like it. Enjoy.

The inscription is barely visible, worn from years of travel, use and neglect – 1958, Kay Doherty, Frontier Swimmer. As I gaze at the metal cup cradled in my hands, I recall the day my grandfather and I scratched those words onto its bottom.

I was eight years old, and it was a typical day at the lake. The sounds and smells of the country surrounded me. The birds chirped and the cicada, counting the degrees through its resonating body, warned of an approaching heat wave. The waters of Lake Lashaway imparted coolness into the air, and a sweet scent drifted up to us from its shore. The few neighbor’s cars that traveled the dirt road rhythmically counted the stones imbedded in its surface. “Darning needles” mapped out invisible stitches, flowers swayed in the gentle breezes, and summer time stretched out endlessly and effortlessly before me.

My grandfather beckoned me to follow him into the garage. I willingly accompanied him into the cool, dark interior of the stone structure. We passed under the huge cement beam that bore my sister’s and my names, the surviving progeny of a song whose life was cut short by polio just months prior to my birth. The gaudy yellow letters matched the paint on the sculpture of a woman’s bust implanted among the stones. She paid no attention to her manner of dress as her eyes searched the sky for some meaning. The oil-soaked gravel shifted beneath our feet as we slid through the opening the heavy red doors afforded us. As my eyes grew accustomed to the quick change from the bright sunlight, Grampa headed to the worn bureau in which he stored some of his hand tools. He pulled open a drawer, rummaged through its contents, and finally retrieved the object for which he searched, a heavy metal stylus.

Grampa handed me the stainless steel tumbler he had procured, and told me that we were going to write something on the bottom. He smiled as he revealed the message the cup was to bear. I obediently etched each letter upon command, and he seemed pleased when we completed the task. I think now of the humorous statement the cup bore. I was far from the “frontier swimmer” it proclaimed! “Expert dog paddler” would have been far closer to the truth, but seen through a grandparent’s loving eyes, we are much more than the sum of our parts.

The cup was used that summer to hold my glass of milk, and its misty exterior provided the perfect writing surface at mealtimes. It accompanied me home to the city at the end of the summer, and though my grandfather had made a special gift of it to me, it became the drinking glass stationed at the kitchen sink for all to use. As my mother had remarried, there were five other children to share the cup – a biological sibling, two stepsiblings, two half-siblings, and a wonderful stepfather who was the only Dad I knew. The family shared its germs indiscriminately, just as we shared everything else.

I cannot possibly recount the cup’s itinerary as it traveled through life with me. It eventually took up residence with all the household goods, just one of many items in the cabinets. At times it would reappear after a forgotten period, emerging from the recesses of a cupboard. I would check its bottom to see if my history was still preserved, and satisfied it was, I would soon forget about the cup. Like an old friend whose love is taken for granted, I paid no special attention to it.

But then my mother died, and eventually the house and its comforting, familiar objects were sorted, sold, packed and moved. I am sure my stainless steel trophy followed me in a box somewhere as my father remarried and we accompanied him to a new life.

When I rented a cheap apartment with my college roommates, the cup came with me, and I was reassured of my grandfather’s love. When I married, the cup resided in the narrow paneled bathroom of our first apartment, nestled in the toothbrush holder. The circular opening left a ring around the cup, which it bears to this day. Since then, the cup’s passport has been stamped with residencies in a house we rented and one we owned. And now it has come full circle.

When my grandfather died, my husband and I fulfilled one of his few wishes. He wanted one of his grandchildren to live here in the brick house he so loved. And so we do. . .We have renovated the house over a period of many years. We added a second story and “gutted” the downstairs to make way for updated plumbing, wiring, and insulation. On rainy days, though, I can still smell the scent of my grandfather’s cigarette smoke wafting up from the cement porch at our back door. Our daughter grew up here, having first had the opportunity to meet her great-grandfather. Her first bedroom had been his.

The cup reigns over the downstairs bath now, residing in a place of honor in the antique toothbrush holder. It sits about thirty feet from where it was inscribed with those words, Kay Doherty, Frontier Swimmer, over forty-seven years ago. Though the words are far less clear now, they still evoke a memory of a time so long ago. I sometimes consider rewriting that inscription, but I don’t think I will. Each use of the cup causes the letters to fade, to release their meaning one molecule at a time. I suppose that is the way our lives are lived and used, giving pieces of ourselves to others. It is impossible to exactly retrace a moment in time, and so I will not attempt it.

It is said that people really only live in another’s memory. If that is true, then the cup is just the vessel struggling to contain those images of time and place. My stainless steel memory holds many pictures of family members who are long gone. I look out at the yard to see in my mind’s eye the trees long fallen that held the hammocks in which I napped as my grandfather sang, “Tora Lora Lora.” I see the sandbox he made for us. I have the photograph of my mother, my sister, a friend and me taken by a roaming photographer for the newspaper. We smile our summer smiles, and glance shyly at the camera. “Small Fry Can Eat Anything,” the caption reads. We are frozen in time as peaches fill our faces and the juice runs on our hands.

I try to keep the flowers alive in my garden that my grandmother first grew – species of a time past: soapwort, columbine, day lilies, and spiderwort. I still see her bent over in the garden as my brother and I take aim with our slingshots. She laughed. My father didn’t, and our trusty weapons were confiscated.

I can picture the jostling piggyback rides through the woods on my grandfather’s back as he chants, “I can’t find my house, I can’t find my house.” I stare at the parking lot for the town beach that exists in the trees’ place.

Some day, perhaps, my daughter and her husband will want to live here, to carry on the tradition of family. If that is so, only then will I part with my cup. I will entrust its care and keeping to my daughter, and, hopefully, a memory of me will live on.

I got an early start on Saturday by staying up until midnight cleaning Friday night and then just continuing to stay up and watch mindless television and chat to friends on the phone and IM. I thought it would be pointless to go to bed since I was going to get up at 4 a.m. anyway. So I showered and stuff eventually and then got in my car for about 4:25 a.m. and headed over to Sarah and Paul's beccause I had Paul burn a couple CDs for me and he was going to leave them in the mailbox. Turns out he didn't put them out there until 5:30 because he thought that would be early enough. and it would have been if I weren't crazy.

I drove on to Boston from there. Took the Ted Williams Tunnel and everything. Under the water. And it didn't collapse. I was so glad. I got to the airport for about 6 a.m. and proceeded to wait in the terminal for two hours. I read a bit of Coraline and talked to Paul on the phone for a bit. Seth's flight showed up right on time - 7:50 and I met him down in the baggage claim. I lost my new favorite sweatshirt down there. :(

Then we headed for home. I won't go into boring day by day details for you all but basically we just hung out a lot. We did a lot of running around to hang out with friends and family. We went to Ralph's on Saturday and saw an awesome ska band, we watched The Notebook (seth fell asleep halfway through), we hung out with Sarah, Paul, Sadie and Joe (which was really great), and we even had dinner with my parents and also Eric (I randomly invited him since I figured he and Seth had the whole marines thing in common). I got my mom an ice cream cake for her graduation with her masters. That was fun. Oh, and we even had time to take Pixel swimming down at the right-of-way at my parents' house. I hadn't been swimming in our lake in a while.

The weekend was entirely too short and before I knew it, I was driving him back to Logan airport. Traffic wasn't bad considering it was the fourth of July. I made it back home and didn't even get any on-call calls. then I went out to dinner later in the evening with a friend of mine and we hung out on the WPI campus for a bit which was actually very cool.

Back at work now and ready for the weekend already. Isn't that always the case?

Seth will be back here the last week of July. He's got a tour of WSC to go on and also an interview with one of the counselors. Hopefully he can find a job out here. I think Paul and Sarah liked him, which is good since they're in charge of all my relationship decisions. ;)

So he'll be out here in a couple weeks again and then in September I'm hoping to do a cross country trip with him. I'll just have to have a working vacation in July. Though there are two whole months between the July vaca and the September one. But I don't want to take too much time off so I'm going to keep my on-call in July and maybe work one or two days from home as well. Then in September when he gets out of the marines I'll fly out and meet him in Washington to spend a few days with his family and then we'll make a record breaking speed trip back to Massachusetts from there. I want to be able to go to Kimmy's wedding on the 30th so we are going to try to make the drive in four days. With two of us driving, it shouldn't be bad.

I'm really looking forward to that. Ever since I can remember, I knew that my parents went cross country on their honeymoon and I've always wanted to do it. there won't be much sightseeing this time around but maybe we can do it again some other time.