Do You Want To Build a Snowman...?

FROZEN is the newest hottest movie rage in the country right now. Most parents are already tired of the songs and don’t want to watch the 15^th time since they bought it 2 days ago. Being a grieving mother I see everything different and FROZEN is no different. I am addicted but for many different reasons.

The beginning shows a young Anna not able to sleep is trying to wake a sleeping sister Elsa.

ANNA: Elsa…pssssttttt Elsa, wake up!! wake up!! wake up!!

ELSA: Anna go back to sleep!!

ANNA: I just cant!!The sky’s awake so I’m awake…so we have to play!!

ELSA: Go play by yourself

ANNA: Do you wanna build a snowman?

The sisters run off to go make magic with the snow and have fun while they are supposed to be sleeping.

To most people it is just an opening scene that they don’t really take any notice too. It is a kid’s movie and this is the beginning to explain what happens between the two sisters. To me this was a scene played out night after night after night in our home while the girls were growing up. Wendy was always in Heather’s room long after lights were supposed to be off and they were supposed to be asleep.

Heather wrote an essay about Wendy where she describes this very event:

I remember when Wendy went through a phase where my mom would put us in bed and Wendy would wait until she had gone back downstairs. Then she would sneak into my room, crawl up on my bed and sit with me. Wendy wasn’t necessarily scared, but just didn’t like to be alone in the dark until she was tired. She could talk and talk for at least an hour, or until mom came up and caught us. That’s one thing Wendy was always good at, talking. We used to say that Wendy talked from Wendy up to Wendy down.  Right before she went to go and get back in her bed, she would ask me:

“Heather, if in ten minutes I don’t fall asleep, and you’re still up can I come back

in here?”

“Yes Wendy” I reassured her, half asleep already.

“Well, what if you are sleeping, can I wake you up then?” She would question

me.

“Yes Wendy, you can wake me up, now go get in your bed” mumbling back to her.

            Sometimes even though Wendy is in high school, she will still come into my room and talk to me like she used to.  It’s a good feeling to be needed by someone.  Wendy needed me, her big sister.

So to the rest of the world this is just simply an opening scene of a Disney movie with no big detail, but to me, a mom, a grieving mom that would give anything to go back to those simple childhood days, it is a special memory and one that Heather cherished and wrote about.

The love of sisters is something I know nothing about really. I had none growing up so I do not really have a full understanding of what it means to the girls to have each other. As the mother of three sisters I do know that huge hole that has been left by the middle sister being gone. The dynamics of the whole family has been changed. For Jenn it was her little sister that died and for Wendy it was her big sister, same sister but two different roles.

The song “Do You Wanna Build A Snowman” of course is about the younger sister Anna trying to get Elsa to come play with her again. If you have seen the movie you know that Elsa has to hide because of her gift of turning things into snow or ice.

Young Anna: (knocks) Do you want to build a snowman Or ride our bike around the halls?
I think some company is overdue
I've started talking to
The pictures on the walls
(Hang in there, Joan! ) It gets a little lonely,
All these empty rooms,
Just watching the hours tick by
(Tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock)

Heather essay about Wendy:

When my older sister, Jenny, decided she was too old to play with Barbie’s and Polly Pockets, my first partner in crime was gone.  I had to find another one and quick.  This meant partnering with Wendy, pulling together and trying to get along.  We continued to argue over who played with which doll, or what we did, but eventually had to decide on something because we were it. Our “mature” and “much older” sister wasn’t there anymore to keep the peace, or make a final compromise between all three of us.  Wendy and I had to learn to compromise on our own.

When I reached the age that I no longer wanted to play with toys in general, she almost had reached that too.  Sometimes I played a couple hours with her, just so that I wouldn’t feel like I had abandoned her, for she was the youngest and didn’t have a younger sister to turn to like I did. We now did makeovers and played in makeup colors no grown woman would ever dream of actually wearing. No matter how awful a face came out, or a hairstyle gone wrong, she always made me laugh and take time to have fun with her. We were inseparable when we weren’t mad at each other. 

FROZEN just another Disney movie, I would say not. To me it is much much more. I hope that maybe when you watch the movie you might think about this story or maybe a story about your own childhood or kids and remember with fondness that time that has already slipped by. 

An update on the book, it passed copy editing and Friday, March 21 was put into production which will do the interior layout and formatting. If all things stay on track this book should be published before my April 20th deadline. What an accomplishment to publish two book in less than a year.