MaryGold has not made an appearance. She isn’t under the bed, and she hasn’t sent me a postcard. As some of you pointed out, her disappearance is a mystery. MaryGold has a story to tell. But I don’t know what it is!
In a little twist, while I was searching for her yet again last Thursday, I happened upon her sister! Her sister’s name is Pinkie, and though she isn’t in Doll God, she does look remarkably like MaryGold. In fact, she could have been MaryGold if MaryGold hadn’t been MaryGold. You know what I mean, right?
Isn’t she something? Almost a twin, except for her pink outfit. You won’t catch her playing in mud puddles like MaryGold. She has her own merits, but she’s not my MG.
She’s even more flowery than MaryGold.
That’s why she’s named after PINKS, which if you are not a gardener, is a type of flower also known as Dianthus.
Still on the scent of MaryGold. And I do mean scent. After her frolics in the tidepools and mud puddles for her photo shoots, she exuded a lovely beachy dirt smell when I last saw her.
Several of you mentioned that I ought to write about MaryGold’s disappearance. Cinthia who wrote Dolls Behaving Badly mentioned she might do so. Marie at 1WriteWay had a great idea: that if enough people write about her she might turn up! So if you want to write about The Mystery of MaryGold, I would be thrilled to publish it here on my blog!
In the meantime, Pinkie will have to sit on my bookshelf and keep the books company.
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If you wonder why I am being so silly, it is fun, but also I have been trying to get my mind off the San Bernardino tragedy. I taught at the university there for fifteen years and still feel part of the community. Also, the killers’ home in Redlands? The same town I had my poetry reading at last month. And while it was all going on, I was driving past the city. It really shocked me. I still feel numb.
On a smaller and even closer to home note, this weekend hubby was tree trimming with the landscaper and he looked up at the worst moment: when a big branch came crashing down. He has a corneal abrasion. The doctor used a dye and optical light to examine it. He showed me the scratch across his eyeball. It looks as if I took a big diamond and scratched the window on purpose. He wouldn’t fill the Percocet prescription, but I am making him take the antibiotic four times a day because apparently it’s easy to get an infection from a tree branch scratch on the cornea. But it should heal well.
Gardening can be very dangerous! Taming the trees the way we want them to look can cause rebellion in the branches. In all seriousness, I hope your hubby recovers quickly so he can help you find MaryGold. Pinky is too sweet for words – I prefer MaryGold’s rough and tumble approach to life! As for San Bernardino – and the over 300 shootings in the States – I have no more to say that hasn’t already been said. What I don’t understand is where is the will to make it stop?
He is definitely getting better! But he would snicker if I asked him to help find MaryGold. MG and I are good buddies. Pinkie is a little too hands off for my taste.
I feel all out of steam over the violence. As if I’ve been punctured and depleted. Ugh.
Good post, but I hope the eye mends quickly
Thanks, Derrick. His eye is getting better remarkably fast!
That’s a relief
Pinkie is very sweet, but still . . .where is MaryGold?
You are not being silly at all. Well, as you know, not to me. 😉
About San Bernardino–I agree with Susanne. I don’t know what to say, but I wish I did know how to make it stop.
Your poor husband! How awful, but I’m glad the scratch should heal easily. I hope it doesn’t take too long.
Yes, not sure Merril saying I’m not being silly means that to some people I wouldn’t be considered “being silly” hahaha. But we are the wise ones for being silly (or so I will tell myself).
He’s actually getting better so quickly, I am astonished. For such a profound (being a writer I started questioning if I meant profound or pronounced, but I think I mean profound) scratch, many of his symptoms are almost gone.
We are definitely very wise. 😉
And perhaps it’s both profound and pronounced.
Hah, like minds.
Sorry – Luanne, of course
Haha, I fixed it for you!
I’m so sorry to hear about your husband, Luanne. Reading that gave me the shivers. I guess it could have been a lot worse. I hope he heals quickly.
I can’t believe MaryGold is still MIA. She’s got to be somewhere in the house. That would drive me crazy.
You know what, Jill? He’s almost recovered–or seems to be. I read that it can come back over and over for some time. But for now he is so much better. But it could have been so much worse. It’s almost a miracle that it wasn’t.
I am starting to suspect my daughter . .. .
Enjoyed your post, Luanne. Pinkie is enchanting, but like others I prefer MG. She will turn up. May your husband heal quickly, and may we all heal (and help create positive change) from the San Bernardino massacre.
That’s because MG is a real girl. She is adventurous and fun-loving and isn’t spending all her time trying to keep her pink dress clean.
Elaine, my husband is actually doing very well. It’s dawning on us how lucky he was!!!
I do think that your word choice of massacre is accurate, and that we ought to be using that word for it more often. The connotations of how innocents are mowed down seems correct terminology to me.
I get eye issues (not from tree branches though) and know how uncomfortable they can be. Most times it heals fairly fast though so wishing your husband the best. So sorry about MG. She will turn up when you least expect her. She is on an adventure!
Kate, I’m sorry you have eye troubles. Do you have to take medicine for it? Hubby’s eye is healing very very fast. It’s really miraculous nothing worse happened to him.
MG is an adventurous girl. I hope she’s having fun and not stuffed in a box in daughter’s storage unit.
Oh my! I hope she’s not stuffed anywhere but out on an adventure!
Sorry to hear about your husband’s eye (and your lost doll!). That’s no fun at all. As for San Bernardino, it’s so difficult to wrap our heads around another tragedy. How close-to-home it must feel for you having those connections you do.
Yes, it really was traumatic and I wasn’t even in the city itself, but driving past when it was going on. But all those years I spent driving to and from there, spending my days there, all the people I know in that city. Thanks, Carrie. It’s been a rough week.
I am so sorry to hear about M’s accident. Hope he recovers quickly. I am certain it is particularly hard to hear about the tragedy in San Bernardino given that you were part of that community for several years. It is difficult to fathom any of it.
Sending love and hugs, Luanne. xo
Thanks so much, Rudri. See you tomorrow! xo
Precious Pinkie Goes in Search of MaryGold, a sisterly story of what it means to see your sister grow up and leave home.
Hah, yes, that is a GREAT story! And Pinkie is sort of the Amy March of the family, whereas MG is the Jo!!
OUCH! I had a corneal abrasion once. It was very painful and annoying. I hope your husband recovers soon, and that you find MaryGold!
He is recovering very quickly, Robyn. I’m sorry you had one–yeah, painful, I can tell. Did you get any setbacks with it? Did it come back again? I was reading online that it can come back over and over again until finally it will probably stop and not come back.
Luanne, the tragedy in San Bernardino makes all compassionate people of good will very sad, and that is certainly true for us at Casa de Canterbury, too. The tragedies become much more personal when they happen in our own state close to our homes and places of work and play. After the Emmanuel Church Massacre in Charleston, our whole state mourned. We will share your grief. And we will also ask ourselves what can be done to stop the anger and hatred that cause these heinous acts.
Blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Give us all comfort but allow us our outrage. We will be thinking of you.
P.S. So sorry about hubby’s accident. Please tell him to take the pain medicine. I am a fellow sufferer from eye pain, and it’s awful. Tell him there are no medals for enduring pain – particularly when meds are available. I’m just sayin’. Good luck and speedy recovery!
Sheila, I remember feeling a doubling of mourning for the church massacre when I read your post because of the event and then that you were so close. Such a sad time. Massacre is the only word that makes sense to me for these events.
I’m sorry about your eye pain–it seems particularly nasty since you’re a writer and reader. Hubby’s getting better at a remarkable rate, and we’re very grateful that he wasn’t injured worse than he was. As long as he can watch TV, he’s happy ;).
I’ll take the Percocet if your hubby won’t! 🙂 Hope his eye heals quickly, and taking antibiotics will help with that. Pinkie is lovely and so tiny. Maybe she knows where MaryGold is but she’s not saying. The mystery deepens. And your thoughts about San Bernardino: thank you for sharing them. I just wish I had words for something like this, but, then again, maybe it’s better I don’t.
That made me laugh! Hah. He is healing very fast. I am so surprised! No, I know what you mean about San Bernardino. Anything I think of saying seems banal in the face of it all. I sort of think of something to say and actually cross it out in my mind.
A lot going on…..hang in there!
As usual. hahaha You too!!
It’s good to be silly when you’re trying to get through not-so-silly things. I hope your heart and your husband’s eye heal quickly. As I saw the flags waving half mast again, I wondered when was the last time the flags were high up on the pole – too many tragedies in our world lately.
Thinking of your flag image shows how these massacres threaten to become “the norm.” What will the reference for normal be for children today when they are adults?
I hope you find MG soon, Luanne – although Pinky is very cute indeed!
The tragedy in San Bernardino was horrific and I can understand your anguish and that ‘too close’ feeling. All I can think of when I hear news like this is, ‘has the world gone insane?’ The only good thing about this is that I know I’m not alone in feeling shocked and disturbed by these awful shootings across the US. I’m in the 99 per cent group who wants the madness to stop and knowing the vast majority feel the same way gives me hope that the world isn’t going insane xxx
I hope your hubby’s eye gets better soon, eyes usually heal pretty quickly, but it sounds like a very painful injury. My hubby lost his eye in an accident about 20 years ago so I know you two will be going through some pretty stressful feelings at the moment. Hugs xxx
Dianne, I’m so sorry about your husband’s eye. I think I did know that. Maybe you mentioned it before? Either that or I am psychic. My husband is getting better so quickly that i am very surprised. In no way was it an injury akin to your husband’s, but it was scary for what it might have been. We realized later we should have wondered if he had a concussion, too, as he was hit so hard by such a large branch.
As I mentioned to Marie above, every time I think of saying something about the killings i mentally crossed out what I was going to say. It’s too stressful–I think I feel too shocked still–to talk about it because it seems painful to me. Thanks so much for your sympathy. xoxo
MG’s appearance is getting more spooky by the day…I hope you find her soon! And I’m so sorry about your husband’s accident, I really hope he heals well and quickly, it’s scary how these things can happen in a heartbeat. And of course thinking of you and all who suffered in San Bernardino. Sending hugs and prayers… xoxo
He was getting almost completely better, but now seems to have a setback. Not sure if it’s the antibiotic and a reaction or if the abrasion has come back (I read online that they do that) or something else. Ugh. What a bad patient. I asked him 3 times today to call the eye dr., and he said, “Not until Monday.”
Sounds like my hubby…but hope he’s feeling much better now… xoxo
Luanne, Pinkie is so pretty! 🙂 I am happy she has been found and it is too bad MaryGold hasn’t shown up yet.
Very sorry to hear about your husband’s eye accident and abrasion which sounds wicked. I am hoping the healing will be full. Not to “boo hoo,” but I found out from the opthalmologist on Dec. 17, that after having undergone laser surgery three years ago for narrow eye glaucoma, I will have to go through cataract surgery on my right eye only, so far. It upsets me that my mom didn’t have her cataract surgery until her 83rd year. I was happy the irrigation ditches or holes are keeping my specific form of glaucoma at bay. Hugs, Robin
Robin, I’m so sorry to hear about your vision troubles. You are not at all “boohooing.” My goodness, I am glad you let me know about it. I will pray for all the best results. Hugs to you!!!!!!!
Luanne I hope hubs is on the mend. I enjoy reading about your dolls, its a great exercise to let loose with the writing. Such sadness fills me when I read about innocent lives lost. I hope you have a wonderful new year.
Kath, the dolls are silly, but silly is good because it is a relief from the tragedies. Let’s hope that 2016 is a year that is filled with much more joy than anything else. xo
Indeed, we love silly and it gets the creative mind a tinkering Luanne.
Precisely!
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