There’s no doubt my parents liked to party, and I don’t think they’d mind me saying so. When I was young, it was summer cookouts with neighbors, holidays with work friends, or family over on a Saturday night – Dad’s family, 5 siblings and their spouses, who liked to party too.
Beginning in the early 60’s, each summer over the next 20 years uncle Luke and aunt Kay hosted a family reunion in their backyard. The grownups barbequed, and the cousins swam and played. My Dad played too, and everyone knew to look to him for game fun.
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It was through these gatherings that I got to know my cousins, and as time went on, their spouses too. Their children I knew only as the little ones they were then, before I lost track. That was forty years ago.
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Sadly, last month aunt Kay passed away, which is why I’ve been thinking of this. She was 98 and the last of my parent’s generation in the family. Now, we cousins are they. Most of us are still in touch with holiday cards or an occasional text, though haven’t been together “in real life” for a very long time.
When my cousin John’s wife Jan passed away last year, I drove to her wake to say goodbye, and to see him and their family. I wondered who else might be there. Moving through the receiving line I recognized John right away and gave him a hug, then his daughter Kathy and her husband Peter. Kathy and I are Facebook friends. There were two men next in the line that I knew to be John’s sons, Kevin and Sean, though not who was who. They were boys, after all, when last I knew.
Questioning Kathy, she leaned over towards them providing introductions. “This is Debbie,” she said, “you remember, Bernie’s daughter.”
Bernie’s daughter. I smiled all the way home. I’m smiling now.
Let the Games Begin – my latest knit design, published 4/5/2024.
Stitch Study–Chevron Rib, its stitch study scarf, published 3/4/2024, and available for free.