My Mother's Stories, by Mim

Several times, Mim published her poems in our school's alumni journal.  This one is especially dear to my heart...

My Mother's Stories

She sat with me, around our kitchen
      table.
Recounting the stories of her youth.
She talked while we washed all those
      dishes.
Or at the lake while we watched the shun
      set over quiet water.
My brothers and sister called these her
      "War Stories," all the adventures of
Dorothy, Alpha, Bob, Kay and Beth...
      They live their lives again in my
Mother's stories, and I am forever 
       connected to their
Adventures.
       I smell the aromas, see the
sights, hear the the sounds, feel the
       feelings and bear the burdens
Of these children who lived in another
       time, and other places.
My mother made them live, and forever
       gave them life...  In her stories.

Mim Lockhart   1996

At the same time that I love it, there is a teeny part of it that also perplexes. Mim had an interesting trait of setting herself somewhat distant from others.  In a family picture I drew at eight or nine, Ian is up in heaven, Dad & Mike ^ Peter are standing to the right, Mom is smack dab in the center, I'm to her left & Mim is to mine.  All of us - except Ian, in the upper right corner - in some way touches another family member.  Not Mim. There she is, to the far left, not touching anyone else, not in any way.  Separate, apart.  

She does it in this poem, too, distancing herself from the rest of her sibs.  It baffles me.   It's the line, "My brothers & sister called these her 'War Stories...'"  No one said "Mom & her War Stories" more than Mim did.  I always thought it was Mim who came up with the phrase, which covered all of Mom's growing up years, bracketed by the two world wars but not exclusive to them.  But in her poem, it's her brothers & sister who use the term. The rest, not her.  Very Mim.