Read on Twitter
mouseholes and other gathering places
A thread
https://throughawidowseyes.wordpress.com/2021/04/11/mouseholes-and-other-gathering-places/
A thread
https://throughawidowseyes.wordpress.com/2021/04/11/mouseholes-and-other-gathering-places/
When our mother died last year, second, of course, to the primary loss of our matriarch, we five siblings lamented losing our family gathering place.
Mom's house was the site of so many hilarious laugh-til-you-cry holiday dinners, spectacular grillmaster summer suppers on her patio, uproarious nightcap-fueled board games, and piles of small cousins in what our family affectionately calls "a mousehole" <---mounds of sleeping…
…bags, pillows, much-loved stuffed animals, a tangle of kids playing and sleeping wherever.
Our collective affection for "mouseholes" is only more cemented now: on Mom's last night, none of us could bear to be away from her (or one another).
Our collective affection for "mouseholes" is only more cemented now: on Mom's last night, none of us could bear to be away from her (or one another).
We all slept in the living room: Mom resting comfortably in her rented hospital bed, all five of us in an adult, room-size "mousehole", sprawled on various couches and heaps of cushions. A cherished memory. I can sleep in a bed anytime, but I can never replicate that night.
We do hope to recreate at least some of the epic family adventures in the China Lake house we recently bought.
By this time next week, Mom's cheery houseful of belongings will be ensconced in the cozy new lakeside house, a far cry from the large cold metal-walled jam-packed storage unit where her stuff has languished for more than a year, to the tune of $275/month!
(And yes, I know it's nutty logic to buy a house to eliminate the storage unit fee.)
I am a wee bit concerned how Mom's kittycat Gus will react when I take him to visit the lake house. The place will have all his old smells, and even some (a lot!) of his fur, on Mom's erstwhile furniture and soft goods.
After Mom's death, when her cat first came to live with me, I made him his own little bed from a sturdy, low, Harry & David pear box, with one of the towels from Mom's scented linen closet nestled inside, and I put it on the guest room bed near a sunny window.
How he loved his bed!
But then one day months later I noticed that the towel was more cat fluff than towel nap, so I washed it. He never went near his bed again. The towel didn't have those familiar Mom smells on it, so who cares? He has chosen new resting places now. He naps wherever.
He can sleep in a bed anytime, but he can never replicate that.
When he smells his old things in a new place, will be be confused? Sad? Happy? Will he search fruitlessly for his mom? I have been accused of anthropomorphizing when I worry about the moods of the cat, but...cats know things, is all. And they're not saying.
On the plus side, at the lake house, there will be chipmunks. Gus loves to chase chipmunks. Mom used to bemoan the fact that Gus would chase chipmunks through the open door into her house, and then lose interest, leaving the chipmunk free to roam about the house.
He doesn't care about catching them, but he does love the chase. Followed by a nap wherever.
This thread can be read here: https://throughawidowseyes.wordpress.com/2021/04/11/mouseholes-and-other-gathering-places/
