Anelisa Diane Dillion 3/1/86-7/14/00

Her favorite color was pink. Her first word was Ki Ki at almost age two, because it took me bringing a stray kitten home to get her to talk. The speech therapist said she needed motivation, and I had allergies galore. She could not walk until she pulled herself upon a small exercise trampoline to get at my friend Rhonda's pugs, then she walked around the trampoline and then to me. She was a beautiful artist. Her works one day will be on display at an art gallery for children with chronically illness or terminal ill children. She loved the Hanson's and I took her to a concert, and we waited outside until there van passed. A week before she passed a friend who worked at DFW Airport got us in the celebrity room to see the youngest and oldest Hanson brothers, and we have her picture with them. The youngest touched her shoulder and she said she would not wash that arm EVER! She also liked the Back Street Boys and saw them the week before she passed, fourth row. She loved pop music, and it drove me insane! She had a purse in almost every color of pink you could imagine, and her room was decorate in guess what color? Butterflies were all over the walls and ceiling. I still have her cat collection and now and then I buy one to place on the shelf. She was boy crazy like most fourteen year old's are. Her and her brother were 13 months apart and were best friends. They never got into trouble and always looked out for each other.

I did not know what unconditional love really was until I had her and her brother. Every time she was in pain, I was in pain too. I miss her more than anyone will ever know. People tell me she looks just like me, but no, she possessed more beauty than I could ever imagine. Perfect teeth, hair, skin, all outside beauty, perfection. Her heart was broken, but she never gave up. Life took her because it was time. Medicine only has its limits.

Life works that way sometimes.

Anelisa I believe was and is an angel. She also is heavens top rated cat veterinarian.

Happy Birthday Sweetie Peatie- Aaron, Robert and I miss your silly ways...

Confession of a Resurrected Memory

1967. Third grade elementary school play grounds running off poverty pressed chicken patties feed to string bean pigtailed girls dodging mean kids; boys in hand me down elastic waist jeans, M. E. Moses running shoes with rubber sole noise- coming to screeching halt when turning corners into hall bathroom escape. Recess bells herd dirty smells of cigarettes and booze- pockets full of roach legs and wing bullies feeding off crumbs of the weak, king of the hill attitudes whose own life is full of thrashing beyond belief. Red haired freckle face girls walk the halls punching like boys- to be reckoned with by peers and teachers. Pretty girls follow across hot Texas tar slamming tether balls as neighborhoods echo from their fists. New student, new faces change attituds; softening leadership skills- guiding, teaching the ropes of policy and hallway paths. Two students become inseparable like twins from birth, laughing as they run across the cafeteria, out to recess freedom- chasing down boys, leaving them with wet cheeks, smiles, and a longing for more. Songs echo from swing set songs, innocent ideals, and fated purpose all to be more than what was.

© E Stelling, 2010

I also sent off three submissions to Alimentum Literary Magazines- Menupoems; it was hard to decide which three to send, but I had written two new ones, and sent one already sitting in the wings.

Friday Shoot Out- Paint Your Town Red

This weeks theme is 'Red', but right now I am making plans to paint Dallas, Texas when I arrive in a few weeks... I love going home to Texas, and when I did this post last year, one of my first, I traveled back twice to visit old friends, and say goodbye to one who I enjoyed helping cook for and take care of... Anjali Vohra

She has been gone two years now and my 'red' heart still beats on for her and my daughter who passed of a similar heart disease...



















'...and they are still with you even when they leave this earth...!'

Sometimes red lets you know when it is okay to 'Yell' for help!















A new friend I had met in New Jersey had a baby, she is two now and I have enjoyed watching her grow, getting in trouble and making her parents faces red from anger as she is entering the terrible twos, threes and soon fours...time flies!




















To the loves of my life, I know I have brought some naughty 'red' to yours...




















We all know I love food, and what a better color than this!



















































Funny things happen to remind us we are silly...
















'This is Super Pup, and he rode in the convertible to my cafe every Saturday...'































Thanks for joining me in my favorite post, since I have only been a part of it for half a year, I made the most of it!

Baby girl don't leave me all alone...

Irish Gumbo remembering, memorializing his brother yesterday in thought, heart longing dredged up my own longing before I went to sleep. If you can call it that...at times...

Children as they often do have their own personalities the minute they hit this oxygenated world. One is as fragile as life itself, or maybe even in the variance of the color pink itself, but needing constant care and hugs. The other leaps over the sofa before he could crawl, clinging to my ankle like I was a kooky bed hair scientist who's only lab assistant was behind him with an ever changing hump in his back. He would always be there looking up to me as if his life depended on it.

So, in an instant out of time they wanted their own music playing on the radio. Never a dull moment in every move we made each day. No wonder I was so thin back in the eighties and nineties. I had to make a plan or I would just freakin' go nuts. A wise mother always knows to make up the rules as you go along, and always remember what you tell them. If they question you, tell the truth, but in a keen 'when you get older you can do it your own way' answer... Kids always think its going on in every one else's house right?

I designated Sunday my radio day. Monday and Wednesday was Anelisa's day. Tuesday and Thursday was Aaron's radio day; Friday again was my day, and Saturday was the radio's day. Meaning if I turned it on, we counted to three and I hit a button. What it landed on according to the tuner, was what we listened to. A well rounded classical, pop, rock and roll, latin, pop, rock and roll, NPR kind of mix-up. I would never make a great DJ, but hey I gave my kids a good sense of all kinds of music.

Anelisa's day was hell. Yep, Aaron and I hated pop, well, we tolerated it until a song came on we could get into. Dig into, in a body moving kind of way. See he had rhythm, but she did not. Latin music came on, he and I would begin to move around the room or in the car; shaking it like a low rider on crack.

My last memory of 'musica' in the car was when Aunt Mary, my little sister was in the back seat with Anelisa. Aaron and I in the front. God knows Mary was an instigator of bad behavior like aunts can be! Yep, it was Aunt Mary's 'musica' in the car day. HUH? WTF! So, the Marc Anthony CD came out of no where and the car began to rock...yeah, like a low riding crack cocaine be bop hoppin john chicken fryin' who the heck knows...and it was just not one song; it was this song...over and over and over and over and over...get ready...hit play...violins take it! Wait I have speakers? Louder? Wait!!! the windows are down, and we have not left the driveway yet...

Memory take me over, move my body...let me feel again..."don't leave me all alone out here...tell me baby girl...cause I need to know..............my ever thought is of this being true....girl you gotta let me know which way to go.......it's getting harder not to think of you.........."



Tell me baby girl cause I need to know...

March 1st is her 24th birthday...I can only imagine what she would listen to these days, or wear? Yikes...or who she would bring home...