Memories of my late beloved mother and daddy, our family and intertwined with the Fall Season, Halloween, New Orleans and Raking Leaves.
Pic: Daddy, Maria-Therese and Mommy ~ 1989, Uptown New Orleans
Back in the late 1980s, we lived in New Orleans on Broadway Street in the Uptown section near Carrollton and South Claiborne Avenues.
It was late October and the Magnolia tree leaves were beginning to fall on the ground as usual. I looked out of our front window to see what was causing a screeching sound. It seemed to persist off an on in a rhythm like manner.
“What do you think that noise is?” I asked Cookie, my wife, who was also wondering about that sound as she was playing with Maria-Therese (“MT”), our 5 y/o daughter.
“I'm not sure,” Cookie said, “but I've heard it before.” MT got in on trying to guess what the sound was, as she blurted out, “Maybe it's Grandma Mercy (my mother)!”
Sure enough, as I ventured out of the front door and peered more closely out through our screened porch, I saw my beloved mother. Mommy had this great habit of regularly raking up leaves and cleaning the streets in front and around the house that I grew up in down the street at the corner of Broadway and Spruce.
The Magnolia leaves are almost “plastic-like,” as they take a long time to break down, thus, sometimes have caused serious back-ups in the street drainage.
I didn't want to interrupt Mom at that moment, as it was almost like a prayer for her – doing a neighborhood ministry! So I just relished the sight of Mom gracefully pushing the leaves into the tray and then dumping them into a garbage can.
On previous occasions and when I was a kid, I would help Mom with this, as she truly taught me the gift of giving to one's neighbors / neighborhood to enhance the environment – we were even noted as “Friends of the Median Cleaners” with a sign posted there.
And neighbors would inevitably come by on their walks or just by being drawn to mom to chat and catch up on things with her in the neighborhood. Mom was shy by nature, but this seemed to draw her out as a person.
Halloween was just coming up around that time, and MT was looking forward to going out trick or treating with mom and dad – especially to Grandma Mercy and “Tito” (in Spanish, short for abuelito, grandfather) my daddy.
But MT's favorite treat was letting Grandma Mercy comb her long and elegant hair – what a sight it was for Cookie and me to watch that!
My late mother surely taught many of us how to “leaf / leave a legacy of love,” that certainly helps us to rake through life!
Keith John Paul Horcasitas, 1133 Knollhaven Drive, BRLA 70810, khorcasitas.yahoo.com, October 7, 2014.
From what I read here, your mother was a wonderful person that have been the neighborhood. If everyone were like that, what a wonderful world it would be. Happy Halloween.
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Back in the late 1980s, we lived in New Orleans on Broadway Street in the Uptown section near Carrollton and South Claiborne Avenues.
