shotgun houses
I awoke suddenly with two words, “shotgun houses” turning over and over in my mind. Meghan had poured herself across my pillow just above my head, and although she was purring in a rhythm I normally found lulling, she was also licking herself excessively as if some serious mishap had occurred during the night requiring an emergency washing.
My mind immediately flew to thoughts of my Grandmother who lived her entire life in a shotgun house. 
In fact, she quietly slipped away one Christmas morning while the world around her home of three rooms was filled with the joy of children’s excitement and laughter as they ripped paper from boxes, and ribbons floated unnoticed to the floor.
As I made my way to the kitchen to pour a cup of steaming hot coffee which automatically brews every morning at precisely 5:00 AM; I thought of Grandma’s tea kettle whistling at a high pitched scream signaling her to prepare the instant coffee in her favorite white mug.
Her possessions had been few, but her abundant happiness was nearly tangible. As I sat in my favorite chair sipping coffee and reflecting on her smile, I recalled her habit of rising early to “get up and rest a while” as she had put it, and how as a teenager I had silently snickered at the thought of getting up to rest.
Now, years later here I was following her same habit, understanding it fully. There is nothing like the simple moments of a steaming cup of coffee in a comfortable chair. Oh, the wealth we hold in a memory of a person whose joy came not from things money could obtain, but from a full and happy heart.
4 Comments
Elaine-
July 24, 2012oh Sherri, sniff sniff… i have an ache in my throat after reading this, but also am so grateful for the ability to get up and rest a while, in my comfy chair….
shoreacres
August 5, 2012And I remember those actions, and that phrase. Families of that time had more in common than the build of their houses.
The teakettle, too – what cup of water shoved into a microwave can compete?
It hadn’t occurred to me, but on another blog where people were talking about their morning routines – their yoga, their walks in the garden, their this and that, I said (in a frenzy of honesty): My routine never varies: up, make coffee, check emails, check weather, drink coffee, brush cat.
That time called “drink coffee, brush cat” is no different than your grandmother getting up to rest a spell. I’m glad to regain that name for the practice.
george
August 17, 2012Writers – and people who teach the art often refer to the “Sentence as a Miniature Narrative”. I have to say Sherri that I’ve rarely read a sentence that conveys so much emotion and life as that in the second paragraph “In fact she quietly slipped away one Christmas…”
Wonderful and succinct – 40 words of sheer magic.
John Prior
August 22, 2012Well written and felt, not sure I have heard the term ‘shotgun house’ but it looks really charming