Thirza remembers that as a child, she loved falling asleep to the sound of her mother’s typewriter. “The rituals that hadn’t seemed especially important at the time had turned out to be the things that actually held a family together” (p. 124). Do you agree with her? Are there similar rituals you can point to within your own family?
I guess I would call this a ritual, we lived in Seattle, every other Sunday we would drive up north to the small town of Lake Stevens. My parents were born and raised in this small country town. We would start our visit at my paternal Grandfather’s home. Next we would visit many of my Mother’s relatives, and there were a lot! We would have dinner at Aunt Kate’s home. Our last stop at my maternal Grandmother’s home. We lived in the city, this was definitely going to the country. Wonderful memories, wonderful relatives. Sorry to say Lake a Stevens is no longer considered country, more like a resort town!
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I wouldn’t say that the family was held together at all. But I do believe that certain sounds can bring back strong family memories, For me a favorite memory is the sound of my mother’s high heels as she clicked hurriedly down the stairs.
The only family ritual I can think of is holidays at my grandma’s house. She had a room in her basement that had an enormously long table (no idea how they got it down there) that fit the whole group - Grandma & Grandpa, their four kids and their spouses, and their 12 grandkids. All the disagreements got put aside, everyone worked together and had a wonderful time – before accumulating the grudges that they’d hold for the next year, haha.
Not so much a "family’ ritual. More of something that was comforting to Thirza as a child that helped keep her connected to her mother.
Interesting thing, my daughter’s name is Tirzah so I had to look up Thirza. It’s the same name with a different spelling. Thirza’s actual name was Theresa. These are two different names, not sure why she would’ve decided to be called Thirza. Anyway, my daughter is often called Theresa because people don’t know how to pronounce her name. She corrects them.
Not rituals so much, but when I hear piano music from the 40’s, I think of my Dad.
I think things like the sound of her mother typing made her feel safe. I do agree with others that I didn’t see much in the way of rituals and definitely didn’t see the family being held together, except perhaps by hope.