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I drove up to my Aunt Sylvia's 4th of July bash on Saturday, the first time I've made a family event in a few years. Actually, it's been 6 years since I drove the hundred plus miles to my Aunt's house in the resort community in the middle of nowhere, Texas. I know it was 6 years ago, because it was my cousin Aly's 1rst baby shower, and a group of us visited my cousin Leslie afterward on our way back (Leslie, at the time, lived in a different middle of nowhere halfway between my Aunt and me). It was the last time I ever saw Leslie; she packed up and moved to Tennessee after that and that's where she died and willed her remains to the Body Farm, never to come home again.
If I'd known that was going to happen, I would have stayed a bit longer that day. Ignorance may be bliss, but sometimes it leaves a bittersweet aftertaste.
The 4th this year was fun, though. All 3 of Leslie's Little-Sister Cousins – Aly, Frankie, and me – were together with our kids. Leslie was an only child, but she craved siblings like a pregnant woman craves pickles. She, the adopted outsider who never felt like she was "really" part of the family, adopted certain cousins in turn to be loved like the brothers and sisters she didn't have. She was already half grown when the 3 baby girls of the family came along, but she decided we needed a big sister and so she decided to be one to us.
( On Sisters And Cousins )
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I drove up to my Aunt Sylvia's 4th of July bash on Saturday, the first time I've made a family event in a few years. Actually, it's been 6 years since I drove the hundred plus miles to my Aunt's house in the resort community in the middle of nowhere, Texas. I know it was 6 years ago, because it was my cousin Aly's 1rst baby shower, and a group of us visited my cousin Leslie afterward on our way back (Leslie, at the time, lived in a different middle of nowhere halfway between my Aunt and me). It was the last time I ever saw Leslie; she packed up and moved to Tennessee after that and that's where she died and willed her remains to the Body Farm, never to come home again.
If I'd known that was going to happen, I would have stayed a bit longer that day. Ignorance may be bliss, but sometimes it leaves a bittersweet aftertaste.
The 4th this year was fun, though. All 3 of Leslie's Little-Sister Cousins – Aly, Frankie, and me – were together with our kids. Leslie was an only child, but she craved siblings like a pregnant woman craves pickles. She, the adopted outsider who never felt like she was "really" part of the family, adopted certain cousins in turn to be loved like the brothers and sisters she didn't have. She was already half grown when the 3 baby girls of the family came along, but she decided we needed a big sister and so she decided to be one to us.
( On Sisters And Cousins )
