November 2, 2012
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Cousins, Aunts, Uncles and other relatives
At Dad's viewing/visitation and funeral. I was so happy to see some of my cousins and Uncle and Aunts. I wish I could've got photos of all them. As it was, I got one of my Dad's two sisters, Deloris (Dee Dee) and Bonnie.
Bonnie and DeeAlso one of my Mom's only sister Sue Powers. I am her oldest namesake so she is extra special to me.
My sisters, Pam and Gwen with Aunt Susie.Of course Dee and Bonnie were extra special too. Dee Dee never married so she was always part of my Grandma Glenn. One didn't come without the other. We always loved to see them come driving in. Aunt Susie lived close to us until I was in 2nd grade and was over at our house a lot so she was our second mama. Since Grandma and Dee only came 3 or 4 times a year and stayed a week or so at a time, their visits were more exciting. Especially since Grandma always got out of the car with a bag of candy and asked "Who's been pretty?" She knew not to ask who had been good. That was impossible with 8 kids 10 years old and under.
One of my siblings actually told someone when they were little that they liked Grandma better because she had lots of pillows. They meant her lap was more comfortable to sit on due to her excess weight.
At one point, I thought I liked Grandma better too because Aunt Susie didn't mind making us obey using conventional methods as did my parents. Now that I am older, I know that I loved them all and one isn't any more special than the others as they all are.Anyway, Dad's oldest brother, Alvie couldn't come because he is bedfast. I think he is 92 years old. I had hoped that his daughter Ruby would be there. I hadn't seen her for 14 years since Grandma passed away. Ruby's brother, who is just a couple of years younger than my mom came. He had to introduce himself or I wouldn't have known him
Dad's older brother, Harvey and his wife Helene came for the funeral but I didn't recognize them at first. Isn't that awful? Their daughter Michelle came after the funeral for the meal to visit with us. (She has a job taking care of handicapped adults and couldn't get away earlier.) I didn't recognize her at all.
Dad's only other living brother, Bonnie's twin, was out of state so we didn't see anything of his family either.
Of course, Charlotte was there. I just love her.
Me and CharlotteI found out later that Dad's cousin Carrie Hardesty came to the funeral. I was really bummed out that I didn't know that. I would have loved to have seen her. I remember an interesting incident when I was in about the 4th grade. I had been in the same class as Carrie's son Royce for 3 years and had no clue that he was my 2nd cousin. One day we were outside playing. Our house was situated very close to Davis Chapel Rd. Our garden and swimming hole (the creek) was across the road and some of us were on the opposite side of the road. Dad came out and called to one of us at the same time as a car came down the road and passed in front of our house. A little later this same car came back down the road and stopped. The lady driver had been taking her daughter Joyce to our neighbor's house for a birthday party. She had thought Dad was calling to her when she passed so decided to stop and see what he wanted. You can imagine everyone's surprise when Carrie realized that the man that she thought was calling to her was her long lost cousin Bennie Glenn and Dad's surprise at finding his long lost cousin Carrie!
And to think that their children had been going to school together all that time! Our families stayed in touch after that but I personally haven't seen Carrie since Grandma died.Well that's all for this post. I want to post some pictures of the visitation, church and grave before long.
PS. I cannot believe that I forgot Steve and Donna Heskett and their son Stevie. And Bob Wolfe. He is married to Steve's sister Doris. Steve and Doris's mother was a sister to my Grandma Pearl.