SAYING GOODBYE TO JOEY, PART 4

Remembering.  It's hard remembering when time erases memories you didn't protect.  I didn't even know I had to protect my memories.  It's been 14 years since my mom passed away and I don't think I can remember her voice or her laugh.  I do, however, remember the look she gave me when I was in trouble.  But to remember the sound of her voice, what comfort that would provide at times like this.  Knowing that time can heal the heart but also take away cherished memories I thought I would record things about Joey I don't want to forget like the scent of his fur.  

When thinking about how Joey smells I kept coming up with short phrases like old, worn leather chair.  A new book, an old  book.  Autumn, spring, summer and snow.  Ivy covering an old stone wall and stones at the bottom of a creek worn smooth by an almost undetectable current.  Vanilla and pipe tobacco.  A baseball mitt that had seen years of sunshine and sweat and home-runs.  Fresh cut grass and dead leaves.  The pavement after a spring rain.  A young child after playing all day in the sun.  A piece of sheet music sitting on a music stand ready to be performed for the first time.  A lace doilie passed down from generation to generation.  Sawdust from 100 year old wood floors being refinished.  An old house waiting for the right owners to give it new life and a new life.  A freshly made bed.  Opening the windows for the first time in spring and for the last time in the fall.  Sunflowers and lightning bugs.  Wet pennies.  Holding hands.  Paper drink umbrellas.  A new can of paint and a favorite paintbrush.  Reaching into your coat pocket and finding money and chocolate.  Watching a foreign film in an old theater eating popcorn out of a red and white striped box with a flap. 

Making the list was fun and I let myself continue until it felt right to stop.  I knew right away that most of the things on the list really weren't scents or smelled at all but were things that elicited feelings of comfort and joy, peace and tranquility, of hope and happiness.  And in the end I realized Joey doesn't smell like anything in particular. Joey smells like Joey.  Joey smells like memories.