IF WALLS COULD TALK, Week of December 21, 2017

by Katie Ouilette

We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and the happiest of New Years! WALLS, yes, it is the day all of us have been looking forward to, but let us hope that our faithful readers know that the promise of Christmas is really with us until next December 2018.

By the way, do you remember my Aunt Mary Foss? Yes, she lived to the ripe age of 107 and I learned so much about living through the years from her. When she married, she and Uncle Lee lived with her in-laws at the Foss Farm on the East Madison Road, Yes, before they bought their ‘little house’ on the Madison Road, in Madison. She worked at Cumming’s Mill in East Madison and walked to and from work every day of the week and, when back at the farm, she worked in the garden or in the barn.

Y’know, WALLS, when our parents have told us to work hard, Aunt Mary is proof of the reward.

WALLS, I just have to tell you about the Best Wishes calendar that Aunt Mary gave me many years ago and it has been on my kitchen window sill ever since. It is a ‘no year date’ calendar and I change the day every day. This is what I found as I changed the pages to when The Town Line will probably be ready for our faithful readers to pick up before Christmas. Entitled ‘The Gift’ on December 21 reads: “What can I give Him, Poor as I am? If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb. If I were a Wise Man I would do my part. Yet what can I give him? Give my heart.” Oh, faithful readers and WALLS, It is time to share with you the poem that is on a cup from which I often drink my coffee each morning. The cup is very old and was given to me when I became a Nana. The poem? “When days are long and mothers are riled, Nanas are God’s gift to a child.”

Well, WALLS, you know that I am a Nana, with grandkids and great-grands, so I have been blessed many times. So, Merry Christmas to all of you who someone calls ‘Nana’ and, yes. WALLS wish all of you a very Merry Christmas! (Woops, the phone just rang and Dean is in Maine…….and “freezing,” he says…different from Bellingham, Washington….but “welcome” to Maine!)