Growing up Jewish, Easter was not really a big deal to me. Sure, I loved Cadbury eggs, but that was about the extent of my Easter celebrating.
When Gary and I got together, the Catholic holiday's took on new meaning as they were the holiday's he grew up celebrating. Although he is not a religious man, they were still "his" holidays. I claimed Yom Kippur and he claimed Christmas.
Our first Easter together, I awoke to an Easter egg hunt in Gary's apartment. He had little plastic eggs hidden all around the apartment with notes in them. The notes were personal little love notes to me and they were WAY better than chocolate. My basket was a stuffed animal turtle that I carried around all day. I still have the turtle and the eggs. And I am smiling as I remember that morning.
Our last Easter together, Gary drove me home from the hospital after I delivered our baby girl, still. There was no hunt, no eggs, no celebration. There were tears and sorrow and pain.
This Easter, we are going away. The timing was right with a work trip that Gary had and we jumped on it. We fly out first thing Thursday. Nashville - I need you to make Easter happy for me again. Or at least neutral as it was when I was growing up. With your Grand Ol Opry and County Music Hall of Fame, please give me new associations of this day.
Passover starts this weekend and so we will not be celebrating that, either. This year, we are going holiday-less...and that is quite ok by me.
I hope this vacation is able to give you (some of) what you need. We went more or less holiday-less around Elizabeth's one-year anniversary, too, and it felt right. Safe travels!
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