Welcome Home!
Most holidays have their decorative themes: twinkling trees and jolly Santas for Christmas, bunnies for Easter, flags for the 4th of July and red, red hearts on Valentine’s Day.
But Thanksgiving, Norman Rockwell’s image of the perfect turkey dinner aside, is gilded only with memories and tradition.
Like most people, when I walk into the kitchen early Thanksgiving Day, I walk into a lifetime of associations.
I mix the family’s traditional cornbread dressing in the bowl my mother used. I set the table with my grandmother’s silver service. I tie an apron around my waist the way my great-grandmother did.
I bake and chop and sprinkle the experiences of a lifetime into each dish.
I light the candles, decorate the table with nuts and leaves, but that’s about it. When we gather around the table, I find myself studying each face. And remembering the faces that are no longer there. At that moment the past and present are stung around the room like a garland.
That’s all I need.
This week in Home
Most of us treasure the mementoes that remind us of loved ones. But a true keeper of family memories makes just as much of the history of people who are gone. Genealogists collect stories, names and dates and anecdotes, as keenly as any collector gathers tangible things.
Miriam Midkiff celebrates the story of her family, but she is just as passionate about the things they left behind. The story of her zeal for genealogy is our cover story.
When Hospice of Spokane designed their new Hospice House, which opens this week, the aim was to give more than comfort, they created a homelike atmosphere for those who are terminally ill. You can learn more about a special touch on page 13.
And, in this week’s Newcomer feature, we introduce you to a couple who took the long way to bringing their family home to Spokane, but they’re enjoying their new life here.
The prettiest part of autumn has faded, and we all know Christmas red and green are creeping in.
But the air is redolent of good and simple things.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.