collaborative story by ella and mamaw

had his own children and he liked it very much. And that night he had a sleepover at his friend’s house
and he liked it and then the next day he went to visit his friend the kangaroo and his grandmother was a
kangaroo too. The kangaroos decided to go hopping, but the little rabbit could not keep up with the big
kangaroos and he began to cry. So the kangaroos stopped and gave the little rabbit a hug and from then
on, they played hop scotch instead.

That night the little rabbit couldn’t sleep so then he took his pajamas off and he knocked at the door
and suddenly he saw his friend the kangaroo. So he decided he’d better put his pajamas back on before
he answered the door, but by the time he got to the door, no one was there. And he wondered who
had been knocking on his door in the middle of the night. And it was a monster! So, he went into his
playroom and got his special magic wand and said, “Monster, monster at the door. You get away from
me!” And the monster went away but he was angry and wanted to come back another day.

The little rabbit checked in on his family and they were all sleeping soundly, so he went back to sleep
and didn’t wake up again until morning.

The next day he noticed that one of the little rabbits was missing. His name was Toosey . The other
rabbits were Noosey, Goozey and Nosey. So everyone went looking for Toosey. He wasn’t in his bed.
He wasn’t in the field next door. But then, they saw him in the garden that belonged to Rumpy. Oh
dear, Rumpy would not be happy to see Toosey in her garden! She did not like to have other rabbits
eating her vegetables. Suddenly, Toosey was discovered by Rumpy and she ran away as fast as her little
legs would carry her. But, Rumpy was faster. She caught up with little Toosey and pulled on her ears
and yelled into them, “Keep out of my garden!” They went around and around in a circle and finally
Toosey got free and ran all the way home. She was tired.

One morning the little rabbit decided to go on a trip to see the big monster. He was scared, but he knew
he had to go. He was going because he liked it there and there was more than a hundred monsters
there. He hopped along the road and then he saw where the monsters lived in the forest. But they
were not home. So, the little rabbit decided to go in to their house and look around. Then when the
monsters came home, the little rabbit was frightened. The monster said, “I want to eat you, I want to
eat you”. So the little rabbit decided to tell the monsters to leave him alone because he knew that he
would not taste good. He had fur all over him to protect him from monsters. The monsters thought
about it for a while, and they said, “ you can’t eat me either” So, they left each other alone and decided
to just eat berries and fish instead. The monsters never bothered the rabbit again.

That afternoon the rabbit returned home and told his family that they were safe from the monsters.
But, they needed to be careful because there was a hurricane coming. There might be lots of wind
and rain. What would they do? Suddenly, the sky turned black and the wind howled. The little rabbits
were frightened, so they tried saying, “I’m not scared” to each other. But the wind was still howling
and suddenly the rabbits were flying through the air with the wind. When the mommy came back she
said, ‘Where are my little rabbits?” She looked all around. Then, she realized that they were blown
away by the hurricane. So, she went looking for them. She was hopping around when she heard her

children crying up in a tree. The wind had blown them way up in the top branches. How are they going
to get down? Mommy decided to go see her friend, Big Bird from Sesame Street. (All of the rabbits are
3 years old) Big Bird said, “No problem. I’ll just fly up in the tree and get your baby rabbits and bring
them back to you.” So that’s what he did.

Then little rabbit and mommy rabbit and Big Bird decided to go see Ernie. Ernie was counting bottle
caps from Bert’s collection. When Ernie was Big Bird and the rabbits, he was glad to see that they were
OK after the hurricane passed by. “Good morning,” Ernie said. “Do you have a rubber ducky just like
me?” The rabbits didn’t know what a rubber ducky was, so Ernie took them into his bathroom and
showed them his rubber ducky. Little rabbit had never seen a rubber ducky before and he was afraid of
it. But, Ernie explained that it was just a toy to play with in the bathtub. The rabbit decided to stay and
have a bath with Ernie so they could play with the rubber ducky. It was fun. They had lots of bubbles
and they had a bubble fight. The rubber ducky had fun too.

that means...

lately elenora has been making up her own language. for instance, she was running through the rain yesterday in her wellies and said "putontik... that means a puddle that only appears when it rains." 

she does this for many things throughout the day, and often will follow a string of made up words with "that's how i say ____ in spanish."

tragedy

at our annual work picnic last friday, i watched, along with almost everyone else in the company, as a vehicle rolled into a group of employees, killing one and injuring 3 others.


it keeps replaying in my mind.  the man who died was a really great man who would always call out "Hi B-." as he walked past my office.  i just feel so heartbroken for his family.  

and then there's my friend and co-worker t., who has muscular dystrophy and was the one whose van went barreling backwards into the crowd.  what a sad thing to happen for a man whose life has already been so hard.  he is in a wheelchair and has limited movement and the van is outfitted to be worked by his hands.  he must just have hit neutral or something malfunctioned or something, and the van went backwards down the hill about 30 feet into the crowd.  i saw people diving out of the way and sound seemed suspended except for a gasp and the thump, thump of the van going backwards.  a bunch of men jumped in and pushed the back of the van to make it stop.  as the people who weren't injured cleared away from the site, i thought i would see 10-20 people laid out on the ground.  it's amazing not more people were hit. 

but such a tragedy for d. and for t. and their families.

i was so lucky to be sitting on the other side of the lawn with j.  i'd actually put down my beach chair before getting food on the other part of the lawn, and in the end it was flattened under the wheel of the van.  

maybe the beach chair sitting on the ground unopened stopped someone from sitting or standing in that space.

when i got home on friday i just started walking and ended up going miles around ipswich, aimlessly, trying to make sense out of the whole thing.  on saturday i went to a memorial for dr. stine, and my emotions were such a mixture--trying to deal with everything.  saturday afternoon i was able to suppress it until ella was in bed, but then i took a walk to rite aid to get a sympathy card, and just about lost it in the card aisle.  this morning as i walked to my office i started shaking and when i sat at my desk i fell apart.

it's like a puzzle that i keep trying to shift around to make it come out right, but no matter how i try to solve it, it always comes out unfixable.

they had a company-wide meeting today, and i was able to hug m., d.'s daughter.  they had a trauma counselor there, and he offered some guidance on how we can cope as a company and as individuals.  

i don't know how it will be when t. comes back to work.  God grant us all mercy and grace and compassion.