behindtheax

my sweater

It is cold this morning. Summer fades, dissolving away in all those expanding morning molecules. I pulled out a few sweaters from where they were stored in the basement, shoved into black garbage bags, labeled accordingly winter. I found my dark green sweater that my husband had giving me when I was pregnant with Erin. It was my favourite sweater for the past twelve years. I came up out of the basement with it on and Greg said. “Would you throw that out already.” It really is mainly just a lot of green thread now with a couple of buttons but I hate to throw it out. There are so many memories associated with it like regurgitated breast milk on wool, pushing a double stroller up and down the boardwalk on cool fall afternoons, sitting on a park bench in the playground while a 15 month old Monica kept toddling over to me with her hands full of leaves, as an offering, dropping them in my lap just to swivel not so gracefully around to go back for another batch, those three in the morning quiet walks to the lab down the cold corridors at the hospital, sitting in the kindergarten yard watching Erin slide repeatedly down the yellow spiral slide, Halloween nights, Christmas mornings, tobogging, winter evenings cuddled on the couch watching videos , road trips back home for Christmas, writing, standing on a frozen beach watching Annie run up and down it, walking the girls to dance lessons on Thursday evenings. Yah, it's a good sweater. It holds a lot of warm memories. I think I will keep it just one more winter.

posted by mary j. @ 9:48 AM