Today is spring on Cape Cod, cool and sunny with a cloudy deep blue sky. Skip, my factotum, is here which is why I’m late. I have a day’s worth of stuff for him to do, and I was out on the deck for a long while with him explaining all the different chores. He took the covers off the furniture while we chatted and seeing the furniture again has made me itchy for warm days on the deck with a good book in hand. We checked the umbrellas to make sure they’d light. They did and then Skip started the fountain. My backyard haven is almost there, almost my summer paradise again. I can hardly wait to see all the candles hanging from the trees and lighting up the night.

When I was in elementary school, we had a May procession every year. We’d practice our songs in class until we knew all the words by heart. On that special day we wore our Sunday best. The second graders wore their first communion white dresses and suits. We were lined up by grade,  youngest to oldest. Walking at the end of the procession was the girl who would crown the statue of Mary in the grotto beside the church. We marched around the block from the school to the grotto. The block was a square and the procession ended almost at the same spot where it had started. Parents with Brownie cameras lined the route. You could hear names being called so pictures could be snapped. We walked as if we were in prayer with our hands in front. The nuns walked beside their classes making sure there was no talking between the songs. We managed to talk anyway. I remember when I was little I’d check out the crowds looking for my parents. The religious significance of the day was totally lost on me. When I was in the eighth grade, I did the crowning. I remember people snapping pictures of me on the route as I walked by them. I think I may have even posed a little. At the grotto, I had to climb a set of stairs and then put the crown on the statue. I was wearing my neighbor’s wedding dress, and I almost tripped on the train, but I managed to get up and down those stairs without falling, a major accomplishment for me. I remember the day was sunny, warm and beautiful.