Gabriel and Elijah Robinson, here are some pictures of Grandma’s pets. She looks forward to the day when you get a chance to meet them.
Lucy gnawing on my cell phone cover; teething.
If ever a building
Represented
Decisions made within,
Pristine,
White like lynch mobs,
Marbled,
With the ghosts of Jim Crow,
Of race-based airs of superiority
And victimization
It is this one:
The Lurlene Wallace Building
Capitol of Montgomery
A conversation from 24 May 2014. Transcription below.
JD: Okay so tell me about your favorite kinds of food.
CR: My favorite kinds of food. I like stuff with different kinds of textures and flavors mixed together, not… and I also like simple fare… I like sushi a lot… fresh sushi… there’s a special ambience to having sushi, I don’t know… uh, what else? Today I am having pecan pie a la mode, which I’m really looking forward to with John at ?…oops I mentioned John. Continue reading
Imagine
Frozen as a statue
Soul locked within
Never uttering a word
To those who gaze upon you
Imagine
Suppressing your opinion
Always mute
Even when asked
Imagine the loneliness
Imagine
Trapped in stone
Forever
To Gabriel Robinson and Elijah Robinson, sons of Reginald (Nazir) Robinson in California. (Maybe you’re in Thousand Oaks, or elsewhere in Ventura County?)
I want you to know that your Grandma Christine loves you very, very much and thinks of you every day.
Please know that she misses you very much and wishes she could see you.
She asked me to create this web site just for you so that some day you’ll find out how much she loves you and cares about you.
— John, website administrator
Here’s a recording of Christine offering up a message to her grandkids.
This is a recording of Christine’s thoughts about Christmas time, recorded 16 Dec 2012. The transcription is below.
JD: So at Christmas time, you tend to think about you enjoy peppermint sticks and things like that. What else is it about Christmas that you really enjoy?
CR: About Christmas? Oh, I enjoy the fact that people are more giving at that time of the year and it seems like a brighter healthier more positive time because of all the bright lights and the flashing and the reds and the greens and the music, the Christmas music that plays generally throughout the malls and it just seems like a happier time altogether.
JD: Tell me about your – the best Christmas ever. Continue reading
Today feels like a good day to begin writing in this space. I don’t think I have anything in particular to say except, today, as everyday, Gabriel and Elijah Robinson, YOU are in my heart, my mind, my soul, every hour of every day of my life. I love you two boys more than words could ever say. If only I’d started this blog years ago.
From the day you were each born and including when I moved to California from Missouri specifically to care for you, to ensure your safety, to guarantee there would never be a reason for you to doubt YOUR importance, or whether YOU were FIRST in the mind or heart of anyone….and, through the pain of having you SNATCHED from my life, and from your father’s, without warning or reason, even today….the range of emotions have been, and are, incomprehensible.
I’ve hesitated beginning this process publicly because as great as my love is for you, as great as my wish to express what your meaning is to us, your father and I, and as great as my pain, our pain, because we, I nor your father, can do neither, I do not want to share sad feelings or leave sad memories. And, so, without knowing what’s to come, this, today, is the beginning of the process of sharing what I hope you will one day have the chance to read.
With love.
Grandma Chris
To Gabriel Robinson and Elijah Robinson, sons of Reginald (Nazir) Robinson in California. (Maybe you’re still in Oxnard, or elsewhere in Ventura County?)
I want you to know that your grandma Christine loves you very, very much and thinks of you every day.
Please know that she misses you very much and wishes she could see you.
She asked me to create this web site just for you so that some day you’ll find out how much she cares about you.
— John, website administrator
Lucy and Lulu Playing
Kitty Poo watching on baby Lucy as she sleeps.