InDepthNH.org (https://indepthnh.org/series/joyful-musings/page/24)
Susan Dromey Heeter is a writer from Dover who recently let her hair go au natural white. Writing has been her passion since her English majoring days at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Dromey Heeter has lived in The Netherlands, Alaska and currently basks in all things New England, including the frigid winters. An avid swimmer, Dromey Heeter’s great passion is to bring back body surfing as most children have no idea how to ride waves without ridiculous boogie boards.
As I continue to muse joyfully on big families, I think of the myriad of Grandmother Footit’s grandchildren, my brothers, sisters and cousins. And I think in particular of one of those forty whose life ended much too soon, Noreen Britton Minkler.
“We had one bathroom in our house, one shower for eight people.”
And in one of those moments where I wonder what I have to complain about, I think of the story Julia tells of when her mom went in to the base hospital to birth her youngest. Only days after, Mrs. Lillard had to pack up and move to the next base as her husband was going back to Vietnam. Six children, a day-old baby, moving house and a husband off to Vietnam.
Susan Dromey Heeter of Dover took to the streets of Portsmouth to photograph the more than 1,000 people who marched in Women’s March 2018 on Saturday.
Joyful Musings and Family Memories: Things were different in 1973. Summer vacations might include a hitchhiker coming along at the last minute and discovering the thrill of some old-fashioned “moral vandalism.”
Joyful Musings: In the photo above, the woman fourth from the right is my mom Nancy; she smiles between her two good friends, Mrs. Ryan and Mrs. Donnellan. Between them they had 24 children – my mother with the smallest brood of only six.
Joyful Musings: Tell Susan your tale of growing up with too many siblings. Actually one could be too many. Let’s hear it.
Skate. Ski. Walk. Cover your face, of course, but take off your pajamas and get outside, beneath the sky.
My most recent adventure has been to aisle 5 of Market Basket. I believe the closest I’ll get to an iceberg are the mounds created by the snow plows.
Santa Claus number one is Exhausted Santa. He’s got kids climbing all over him, he’s ready to keel over, ready to climb under the covers until July. He’s done. Exhausted.