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I ran across this picture the other day and it cracked me up all over again, so I thought I would share it. This is me and my favorite uncle, Edgar Frankwich, back when I was eight months pregnant with Celeste. (Yes, eight months. I got even bigger than that.)
Edgar died five years ago last month from a rare form of cancer caused by the anti-rejection medications he took after his heart transplant. He was the neatest person. I miss him especially bad this time of year. My mom (his sister) and I love yard sale season, and so did Ed. He liked to come down here from Pittsburgh so he could go with us to the sales held all over Putnam county the first weekend in May.
My uncle and I used to email quite a bit, and he was always sending me funny stories to use in my column. I would tease him that he was just trying to get his name in the paper, and it became a joke between us because I’d use his stuff, then only identify him as “a relative.” Anyway, after Edgar died, I told one of my friends I was going to miss Ed always trying to get his name in the paper.
Immediately after that, I started finding pennies everywhere I went. It was the strangest thing. It wasn’t just one or two, but ten or more every day. Once I put money in a vending machine, and when my change came out, it included a handful of pennies. No one puts pennies in a vending machine, yet they tinked out with my change. I’d heard about “pennies from heaven” before, but I thought it was silly. Which made Edgar have to work even harder. Finally, I cried uncle and wrote one last column about him. As soon as it appeared, the pennies stopped.
April 12th, 2006 at 8:14 pm
Pennies From Heaven
by Charles Mashburn
Copyright © 1998
I found a penny today
laying on the ground,
but it is not just a penny
this little coin I have found.
Found pennies come from Heaven.
That’s what my Grandpa, told me.
He said, Angels toss them down.
Oh, how I love that story.
He said when an Angel misses you
they toss a penny down, sometimes
just to cheer you up, to make a smile
from your frown.
So don’t pass by that penny
when you are feeling blue,
it may be a Penny from Heaven
that an Angel tossed to you.
April 13th, 2006 at 7:15 am
Thanks for posting that. I have a copy of that on my bulletin board at home (a few layers down).
April 13th, 2006 at 7:31 pm
You know, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of pennies from heaven before. The only thing I remember hearing is find a penny heads up, all day you’ll have good luck. I’ve got a new way of looking at it now. Wonder if dogs can toss pennies?
Karin, I think it’s funny that you always referred to your uncle Edgar as “a relative” in your column… bet he got a kick out of that. Glad you posted the pic too, it’s really cute.
April 14th, 2006 at 8:07 am
That is the cutest picture!
April 14th, 2006 at 11:04 am
Isn’t it funny how, after several years pass, the pictures that used to make you cringe are ones you really like now? I used to hate seeing how huge I looked when I was pregnant, but now I like it.
With the pennies–there have been so many times when Celeste and I are out somewhere and we find a penny from 2002 (the year Camille was born). We’ve almost never found any other year.
April 17th, 2006 at 8:29 am
I haven’t had that moment yet… the pictures that used to make me cringe still do
I love that you find pennies from the year Camille was born. That has to make you smile.
I have a weird question… how did you choose Celeste and Camille’s names? A lot of my friends chose the popular names when they had kids. I’ve always thought if I ever had kids, I’d like something different… maybe even borderline unusual.
April 17th, 2006 at 11:01 am
I always wanted something that was different, but not strange, and NOT spelled weird. (Going through life saying “Karin with an i, not an e” made me determined.) I wanted the name Bailey for a girl ever since watching WKRP in Cincinnati when I was growing up, then the Oklahoma bombing happened and after seeing that burned little girl named Bailey, I just couldn’t use that name and I didn’t have a back-up. Mitch ran across the name Celeste. I wasn’t totally sold until I saw her. She looked like a Celeste with her dark eyes and dark hair.
Camille’s name I got after listening to Bill Cosby talk about his wife. I’ve never known a Camille, but the way he spoke of his Camille with such awe touched me. I liked the name from then on. Celeste says when she has a daughter someday, she wants to use that name for her.
My friend Carolyn just named her son Aidan. I love that name. Boy names were impossibly hard for me. It’s a good thing I had girls.
I have this book called Baby Name Personality Survey that I still keep in my home office for help when I’m trying to come up with a character name. Rather than just say what a name means, it says how people they surveyed tended to think a person with that name looked, acted, behaved. It’s fun to look up everyone you know to see if their name fits.
April 17th, 2006 at 12:26 pm
The Baby Name Personality Survey sounds like it’s fun to look through even if you don’t have kids. I know I wouldn’t want to name my child something completely off the wall or spelled so strangely that nobody gets it.
I like the way Aidan sounds… My cousin named her baby boy Gideon (I’m not completely sold on it but at least it’s not another common name).
Even when I first read about your Camille… I thought of Bill Cosby talking about his wife, stretching her name out “Cameeeeeeeeeelle”. It’s sweet that Celeste wants to name her baby girl after her. That’s how I got my name… from my mom’s baby sister that passed away (I think before she was even a year old).
April 17th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
I like Gideon, except you know it’s going to get shortened to Giddy and that would drive me nuts. Well, it’s cute for a little boy, but when he gets older…
I remember thinking Camille was a good name because it couldn’t be mangled into something annoying. I thought it might get shortened to Cami, but for some reason, it ended up being Camilly.
I worried that Celeste might get stuck with “Celeste the Pest,” but so far, the worst she’s gotten is Celester or Lester.
April 17th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
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April 17th, 2006 at 1:28 pm
That’s what I was thinking… when he gets a little older, he’ll be tormented.
I like Camilly for a nickname. It rolls of the tongue easily. Celeste has gotten off easy about being teased. It just takes one little booger to hear “Celeste the pest” and then she’ll be stuck with it.
Our high school basketball team made it to the state tournament this year and one of the boys on the roster is named Chester Lester. I like just saying his name but I bet he’s been teased most of his life.