Being Mary Poppins

Halloween 2018 is fun because I have 2 little girls to take trick or treating, my nietas. The neighbor girls, Esme her and baby sister go with us. The two Dads follow along, watching their girls make memories.

While getting ready, Kaitlyn , 4, asks me what I am dressing up as. She and her sister have very dramatic black and purple witch costumes. I, who have never bought a costume, have nothing particular in the closet. I don't buy pre-made costumes not because it wouldn't be fun, it just wasn't how I learned this dressing up skill when I was a kid. Not because I wouldn't have liked cool, beautiful princess ball gowns but because it wasn't in the family budget.

After dinner we dress, and the girls decide I should wear a little pink hat with a rose on it. I throw on 'the raspberry coat" named for it's color - a mid length velvet coat, very fetching. My winter boots come out of the closet for the first time since last spring. It looks like it might rain, so I bring along my wood handled blue-green umbrella. As a last effort I don a little purple cape from the dress up basket.

We gather in the street with our neighbors, there is the admiring of costumes. Kaitlyn and Adlelyn are witches, Esme is a female comic super hero, little baby Izzie has a warm pink and blue unicorn suit. They look at me and I say," I'm not sure what I am, maybe super Grammy."

Six year old Esme says, "You look like Mary Poppins!"

That felt like the sweetest thing anyone had said to me in some time. After a long day of child care, house work, trying to get dinner into everyone before trick or treating, making sure the kids had naps, etc, I thought being Mary Poppins was a wonderful notion. All I needed, maybe, was "a spoonful of sugar."

The kids proceeded to gather a boat load of candy. Little 2 year old Adelyn keeping up with the older girls. I got to watch my own kid watch his kids enjoy this quite old fashioned tradition, going to strangers doors and knocking confidently.

So another Halloween has come and gone, the leaves fly about in the windy wind. I write this on All Souls Day, or Day of the Dead, if one were in Mexico. I cut some marigolds and bring them in to grace my kitchen. The flowers of remembrance. To all those who have gone on to the other plane, I remember you today as I harvest the last of my summer beans.