Now that Diane is in her seventies it would seem there would
be lots of relatives, young and old. But
she is more of an orphan now than ever.
Her sister has chosen to not have a relationship and Diane has finally
accepted that and doesn’t make an effort to keep in touch. Although she does send a birthday card in
November as she has for sixty years and always wonders if Marie even opens
them. Oh, well, we must accept what we
cannot change.
As a child there were always aunts and uncles and cousins,
but all are gone now, except some of the cousins who live in far flung
places. Those relatives all seemed to
have old fashioned names. There were two
Aunt Effies, a grandmother Ella, Uncle Homer, Uncle Del, Uncle Lionel, Aunt
Marian, Aunt Dee, Uncle Gordon, Aunt Chris, and Diane’s mother’s sisters,
Dorothy and Cornelia. They were almost
all country people, who lived on farms, tilling the soil and raising livestock
– cows, chickens, ducks, rabbits, even a horse or two. Diane lived in the suburbs so it was special
to go out to visit the relatives on farms.
Everyone told family stories, mostly funny, and shared news of family members. Some summers there would be family reunions,
usually at a park with a lake to provide swimming for all the kids. The water was so cold and dark, Diane was
always afraid to go in very deep. The
dads would put a few watermelons in fishing nets and immerse them in the cold
water and there was always a great jar with a spigot, full of lemonade, and a
washtub with bottles of beer in ice.
Everyone contributed their very favorite picnic food and eating seemed
to go on all day. One year one of the
uncles brought fireworks from out-of-state and lit them over the water when the
sun went down. It was very exciting because fireworks were a very rare sight
except for the 4th of July.
Such nice memories.
Diane wishes she could just tell all of those people in the past how
much she cherishes those family memories and how much she misses all of
them.
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