Wede’s Poem
Yesterday my Kuzzin Kris gave me some treasures. They are ‘bits and pieces’ that she has run across while cleaning out some of the boxes of “stuff” that belonged to her mother Virginia Williams Jones. Among those treasures was a poem written to Virginia by my Uncle Willard (called “Wede” by the family and close friends.) This is what it says:
“Have you done any of these activities with Virginia?”…from an invitation to her 80th
So have we done any, Virginia and I
The question no doubt is meant well;
But I stand on my rights, and refuse to reply
There are things that a gent doesn’t tell.
Willard R. Espy (1910-1999
Besides, since men’s hopes do not always come true,
Perhaps you would find it more fun
If I took you aside and confided to you
The things I would like to have done.
Now, rumor may whisper I’m left on the shelf –
Discarded; forgotten; all wet.
But still, it seems best that I keep to myself
The things I would like to do yet. Love,
Wede
December, 1995
Virginia Williams Jones
Some years later – twelve I think – I interviewed Virginia (who my family called “Gin” or “Ginger”) for “North Beach Girls of the Teens and Twenties,” a series I was writing for the Observer. In that magical one-thing-leads-to-another sort of way, she told me about a memoir she had once written. She gave it to me to read and here is how it began:
I have been jotting down memorable people and events off and on through the years but didn’t start to collect all the stories until I fell and broke my ankle five days after my big 80th birthday party. Since I was confined for several weeks, I decided to make some sort of order of things…
What followed was that I put on my editor’s hat and assisted Ginger in producing “Gin’s Tonic” for the Summer and Fall 2007 Sou’wester. (I loved her title. She told me that spending her healing time to put the memoir together was indeed a “tonic” for her.)
Now that I am eighty myself, I appreciate Ginger even more. What a gal! And I should probably mention, Willard was no slouch either. He was five years Ginger’s senior. What a guy!
Thank you with all my heart, Cuz! I am so glad that your Mom (Dale) and my Mom (Gin) produced us and instilled in us their fabulous gifts –notably humor and a love of life — what a treasure! Love always, KK