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Reflections on Halloween
Oct. 17th, 2008 01:11 pmI'm all of a sudden very prolific on LJ today. Yikes! I promise this is the last post for now...
So this isn't going to get too profound and personal. Okay, well it might, but not too much into my feelings about dressing up in costume and my personal feelings and thoughts about why it just doesn't feel too right or make me as happy as it might make others. I think that's actually changing some.
Our friend Kelly puts together a haunted forest in Meredith every year, and I was glad to help with the first one. It's really great and I hope that any of you in the area this weekend will go for a walk through it and enjoy. I haven't helped since the first year, partly because I can't afford to help and partly because aside from the thrill of helping a friend get a new project started and helping her reach her goal I'm having a hard time getting excited about it.
Fifteen years ago I was working as a Nurses' Aide and had the great pleasure of working with Joyce. We became friends regardless of the fact that I was still in high school and she was a grandmother. She was a wonderful person full of energy and happiness and compassion. Every year for many years she and her family would run a haunted graveyard in her big yard in Hudson that would attract people for miles. Fifteen years ago she asked me to help. I got to play the role of ET in the driveway at the halfway point. I was the friendly creature that helped calm scared children and was also responsible for collecting donations for the local animal shelter. It was a great time and I loved helping out with that event so much. I looked forward to it every Halloween, not because I got to dress up and be ET, but because I got to be a friendly face for children and help do good for the community and animals. After the haunted graveyard would close for the night, we would all stay around and have a huge, wonderful Halloween party.
What would have been my fourth year I was no longer working at the nursing home with Joyce and wasn't able to take the night off to help out. Then Joyce passed away after a battle with cancer. It saddened me so much to lose such a wonderful friend and for the world to lose such a wonderful, friendly, compassionate, energetic person. I was glad to see the family still carried on hosting the haunted graveyard, but I never did make it back to help. I had moved north and wasn't able to be a part of it anymore. I really miss Joyce and being a part of that event. While it was fun to do something kind of similar helping Kelly, it just isn't the same.
So this isn't going to get too profound and personal. Okay, well it might, but not too much into my feelings about dressing up in costume and my personal feelings and thoughts about why it just doesn't feel too right or make me as happy as it might make others. I think that's actually changing some.
Our friend Kelly puts together a haunted forest in Meredith every year, and I was glad to help with the first one. It's really great and I hope that any of you in the area this weekend will go for a walk through it and enjoy. I haven't helped since the first year, partly because I can't afford to help and partly because aside from the thrill of helping a friend get a new project started and helping her reach her goal I'm having a hard time getting excited about it.
Fifteen years ago I was working as a Nurses' Aide and had the great pleasure of working with Joyce. We became friends regardless of the fact that I was still in high school and she was a grandmother. She was a wonderful person full of energy and happiness and compassion. Every year for many years she and her family would run a haunted graveyard in her big yard in Hudson that would attract people for miles. Fifteen years ago she asked me to help. I got to play the role of ET in the driveway at the halfway point. I was the friendly creature that helped calm scared children and was also responsible for collecting donations for the local animal shelter. It was a great time and I loved helping out with that event so much. I looked forward to it every Halloween, not because I got to dress up and be ET, but because I got to be a friendly face for children and help do good for the community and animals. After the haunted graveyard would close for the night, we would all stay around and have a huge, wonderful Halloween party.
What would have been my fourth year I was no longer working at the nursing home with Joyce and wasn't able to take the night off to help out. Then Joyce passed away after a battle with cancer. It saddened me so much to lose such a wonderful friend and for the world to lose such a wonderful, friendly, compassionate, energetic person. I was glad to see the family still carried on hosting the haunted graveyard, but I never did make it back to help. I had moved north and wasn't able to be a part of it anymore. I really miss Joyce and being a part of that event. While it was fun to do something kind of similar helping Kelly, it just isn't the same.
