Catherine Sevenau's Blog: Writings~Rambles~Rhymes, page 31

A Love Story

While waiting by the register for my sundae at Sweet Scoops, a pint-sized child sidles up next to me to where the napkins are. He’s not quite tall enough to reach and I quietly catch the container just as it nearly flips off the shelf. “May I help you with a napkin?” I ask. “Yes […]

Emily and Those Hoy Boys

As rivers cut canyons through Rockies to bays the Hoys traveled westward in pioneer days. They fought for the Union (Frank, wounded in battle), Then homesteaded Brown’s Hole where they branded their cattle. They were ranchers and farmers and bull-whackers of yore, horse breeders, schoolteachers, and miners of ore. They were writers and poets, a […]

Toss of the Cosmic Dice

Why bother? I mean really? ~ They’re dead. Who cares about the past, and what difference does it make? But here’s the deal, sometimes we do something for its own sake, other times because we want to. And then, if for no other reason, just for the fun of it.  There was a five-year period from […]

Bloodlines (original version)

This tale is a history, a fable, a prayer; of those gone before me, now gathered with care. Can’t start in the middle—too confusing, not clear, can’t start at the end—will be over I fear. So I’ll start from the first as far back as I can and nudge you along ’til you’ve met the […]

My Impending Demise

A Time to Dance, a Time to Mourn ~ We think we have time. The question is, how much? That leads to other questions. Will I be satisfied with how I lived my life? What am I compelled to complete before I die? What legacy will I leave? When I attended an 81 year-old cousin’s funeral, […]

A Bereavement

In Memory of Natalie Rose Sanford ~ She struggled to find the imaginary light at the end of the tunnel, and now, so are we. When someone takes their own life, we wonder “why?” Was it genetic? Was it societal? Was it chemical, was it situational, or was it an organic mental illness? Was it voices […]

That’s All Folks

Through Any Given Door/A Family Memoir has come to a close. Some of you have expressed disappointment that it’s ended. I imagine others are as happy to be done with it as I am. Though I’ve been asked to continue our story, I can’t (or won’t) for the following reasons: * Many of my sources have […]

Post Memoir Sketches in full, sans photos

Ten final stories as to how our later lives shook out… 4.01 Unleashing the Flying Monkeys Through Any Given Door ~ I imagine it’s no coincidence that my writing began when I was 53, the same age my mother was when she called it a day. Nor that it took me five years to write […]

4.10 Larry’s Later Life

Gordon Lawrence “Larry” Clemens 1st of 5 children of Carl John Clemens and Noreen Ellen “Babe” Chatfield Born: Jan 14, 1934, Chico, California Married: Jun 16, 1956 (at age 22), Marian Louise McLellan, Upland, California Two children Gordon (Larry) and Marian (by Marian Clemens) ~ In 1952 Gordon Lawrence Clemens was a music major at San […]

4.09 Lore, Libel and Lies

Larry, Marian, and Catherine (me), 2006 ~ My brother, his wife, and I just returned from our fifth road trip of gathering family history: searching through county records, newspaper archives, and historical museums hunting for birth and death records, local articles, pictures, deeds, wills and old maps—things you have to go to the actual places […]