Sunday, May 24, 2009

Polly


We have an old family friend that we used to giggle about, and with, because she would cry at the drop of a hat. We'd all be sitting around the kitchen table and could be talking about the most innocuous thing when tears would start to fill up in her eyes. Oh, she'd laugh while big drops were streaming down her cheeks.

I can remember when my oldest sister started in with the same uncontrollable tear ducts. "Ohmy," we'd be laughing, "you're just like Polly!" Not many years later, my other sister would have tear-filled-eyes in an instant. And, finally, me. I cry at commercials or when I hear beautiful music. I cry when I think about how much I love RK. Or when I'm with my whole family and we're all laughing so hard together, it quickly turns to tears of joy. Some of my most common cries these days can start when one of the kids at school says something really, beautifully adorable. A real water-works show for me was at an after-school performance this year: As the kids began to sing a familiar song, I started to quietly weep and my first graders were in shock. They stared at me in wonder.
"Miss Molly, Miss Molly, what's wrong? Are you okay?"
"I don't know", I whispered to them, "I guess this song just always makes me cry."
Q., who was sitting on my lap at the time, turned around to look behind me, "Well, it can't be that the song is sad," he said to me, "I just looked back at my mom and SHE'S not crying!"

Polly's daughters, D. and K. are the same exact way. There have been times when we've all been together, my mom, both my sisters, our two friends and Polly, and if you walked in the room while we were deep in topic, you might think someone had just died. But, no. We were probably just talking about a good old memory...that made us cry like babies.

When I watched this video for the first time on Paige's site, I bawled. And at the end of this good cry, I laughed to myself, thinking, "ohmy, i'm still just like Polly!"

10 comments:

Cindy said...

I think there is a Polly in all of us, I know sometimes I can cry and then get laughing and then cry because my sides hurt so bad....what wonderful memories! Take Care. cinner

kaarimarie said...

i cried while reading this!
k.

Christine--RHP said...

oh good grief--me too! at the most inopportune times....like while delivering to one of my wholesale accounts and chatting with the proprietress the other day... we both just lost it for a bit.

Molly said...

I'm starting to think it's related to getting older ... I'm also prone to some inopportune 'brimming' these days. It's kinda nice ...

Anonymous said...

Oh dear Molly, ain't it grand...., it just seems to come out so much easier now.
I LOVED this post! My heart, tears, give at a drop of a hat..., you know. OX Hol
...but I do remember, as a child, 'Why are they crying?'

Bonbon Oiseau said...

I love this! I cried and cried listening to "my country tos of theee" last week at my nieces graduation because they printed the WHOLE song.
you are amazing...

Domino Bianchi said...

Can I break the mold here and not talk about crying?

That video is awesome. The song is amazingly sweet on its own, but the couples really drive it home.

The video concept reminds me of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd34vJohGXc
which won't make you cry, but uses the same concept.

Ok, to weigh in, crying is healthy.

paige said...

The worst is when the tears start to well up when someone is talking about the dental floss they bought or what they ate for dinner.

At that point I try to blink a lot so the water will even out over my eyeballs and not actually overflow.

I don't think that is the healthy crying Domino above me is talking about. That is just strange and unexplainable.

I do like a real cry every once and awhile, but I prefer when it is justified.

For instance, I watched Steel Magnolias again the other night. And you know, the funeral scene... well, it started and I thought to myself, it isn't so sad. I can do this, I'll make it through... and then she looses it and I loose it even harder. Amazing movie and one I don't feel embarrassed to cry with.

I think you're right, it is definitely age. And this song will forever make me cry.

Marion Williams-Bennett said...

I am so delighted to see all these criers uniting!
My friend said that "crying is like breathing for you." I think making peace with the tears is the best possible thing.
Thanks for this wonderful post!

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