ON THE CUSP OF 60! FAMILY

marita casartelli downes

Christmas 2001

Pompeii
Christmas 2000

 
ON FAMILY

My children are now both grown and off into the world. My older daughter Hilary has her own cusp. She'll be 30 in September. She keeps herself busy working as an apprentice carpenter for Local 1, the stagehand's union. Right now she's working for ABC television and just finished building a set which is about to be blown to bits on a soap opera. Kiera who will be 28 in June, is about to get a visa to Myanmar (aka Burma). She works for the NGO, Against against Hunger and her assignment should last 8 to 10 months.

Being in what Jane Isay terms the "walking on eggshells" stage of life, I don't seem them very often, but there are always.....

Baking Sundays….

Sometimes on Sundays we bake, Hilary, Kiera, their friends, my friends.

I feel warmhearted, uber-motherly satisfaction.

It’s fun lemon shaker pie, pecan pie, apple pie, banoffi (banoffee, banoffy, bannofie) pie, spice-carrot-unwheat brownies with maple syrup and vegan mock maple butter cream frosting.

Days paying homage to the computer and catching up on Gilmore girls and Lost (lost is too scary to watch alone).

Sometimes we have Sunday dinner first…pasta chicken

It warms my cockles, sets me glowing, prideful contentment

That reward that I always wanted…family

 
Kiera at 24

Tall and thin
   Young and feisty
Warm-hearted
    Rebellious
        Simpatico

Kiera at 27

adventure looms
     hair about to be shorn
  love awaits

Hilary at 26

Calm and assured
     Worried and unsure
Fair studious adventurous
      Talented
          Dreaming of the future

Hilary at 29

chicklet
     honing her instruments
hammer and saw
pots and pans
knitting needles and sewing machine