Family

I traveled up to The Farm today for a reunion of the cousin's on my Mother's side of the family.  We do not have any first cousins on my Daddy's side as he was an only child.

My favorite boy cousin died two years ago of Alzheimer's, but his widow came.

My oldest boy cousin's wife died ten years ago from untreated breast cancer--she relied on a Chiropractor for ALL her medical needs and he thought he could cure her!!! 

My cousin was there with his lady friend. 

My only girl cousin, Carolyn was there as was her brother, who was born when she was 11, Tim.

A truly strange family in the way they had or didn't have children.

The oldest, Mamie, had two sons, Don and Wayne.  Don was there today, Wayne is the one who died.

The next oldest, Paul, went into the Navy in WWII and afterwards became a Texas Ranger, also working with Elliott Ness against the Mafia in Chicago.  He never returned to visit his family because he didn't want to take the chance of any gangsters knowing where his parents, or siblings lived and harm them. I only saw him once--when I was 4, after the War.

We thought our Grand Parents had kept him out of the family because at one time, he was married to a black lady, then divorced her and married a Morman.  It was only after his death and my cousin Carolyn ended up with his diaries and taped journals, that we learned the truth.  He did have a daughter--Esther, the oldest of all our cousins, but she died 10 years ago.

The next, Ruth, was Carolyn and Tim's Mother.  She was my favorite Aunt--a nurse who was with my Mother when I was born and with my Mother when mother died.  Her two children are 11 years apart.

Next was Robert--he was a Methodist minister, like my Grand Father (his father) and he and his wife had no children.

Then comes my Mother.  Her children being 13 years apart.

Then my Uncle Phil.  He was also in WWII and suffered my an unstable mental condition afterwards.  He is now buried in one of the Great Lakes Military Cemeteries--just up the road, in Holly, Michigan.

So, out of 6 children, we only ended up with 6 Cousins.  I would have thought there would be 18 or more.

Left: My cousin Don's friend. Barb.  Oldest Cousin Don.  Youngest Cousin Tim.
Susan and me
Mary (Tim's wife). Yvonne, my cousin Wayne's widow and my cousin Carolyn, Tim's sister.

That's it.  
Don is 85
Tim is 70
Susan is 62
I am 75
Carolyn is 80
and Wayne would be 80 also.
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I took some other pictures while I was walking around.

Chuck just finished up the new steps and porch flooring.

They moved the 100 year old Hosta's away from the porch because Chuck had to go under and put up new braces and then redo the original lattice work.

They will move the Hosta's back to the foundation at a later date.

They found four old sets of shutters out in the barn.  Cleaned them up and repainted and put on the new addition, so it all matches and looks like part of the house.  I love it. 

So, to the right of the front steps, my sister had this cute little sign that belong to our Uncle Robert--adorable, but then I noticed...two mouse/rat (I suppose Chipmunk) traps on either side of the sign.  What's up with that?

 These two statuary's are in a memorial garden she is creating for her son Matthew, who died from Leukemia, a week short of high school graduation.

We called this the Walts Family Tree.  It took 8 people hand to hand to wrap around the trunk.  It was the oldest Oak tree in our county and one of the oldest in the entire State.

A large branch from the middle, fell down, the winter after my Daddy died.  He was the last with the Walts name, so we figured it was only proper that branch of the family tree, fell.--2008

In 2011, a limb from the left side came down.  Here is brother-in-law Chuck.

In 2013, Susan called me to tell me there were only two branches left.  Chuck called them the
"Two Sisters"  Susan and I were going to pick a branch to be our own, but a good thing we didn't because, in the storm we had the first of Spring, one of the branches came down.  If we had given them our names, the one that went down would assume she was dying!!

This is all that stands of that magnificent tree.  They are going to have it taken down as it bothers us to see it this way.  

They will have enough firewood to last them for the next generation, LOL.

All of this, makes me extremely emotional and sad. 

 Because my ancestor's lived such long lives, I remember them.  I am the only one, now, who remembers the Greats.  We both remember our Grandmother, but I also remember our Grandfather who died at age 48, in 1943.  Susan doesn't

I have always shared the affinity for THE LAND that my father and the men before him had.  I was young enough to walk all over every field in the three farms and both woods.  As I walked with my Daddy, he always said, "Take care of the land.  It is what provides life for us."  He learned that from his father, who learned it from his father, who learned it from the first Walts who settled there in 1850.

I was an outside all the time kid.  Susan was an inside all the time kid.  She lived in a suburb of Binghamton, NY, called Chenago Bridge, for 22 years.  Lovely little town, with lots of neighbor's.  I know she loves the land, or at least the farm she owns, but she doesn't have that deep rooted passion I have for it.  She sometimes misses the wonderful town she lived in and her neighbor's.

You all know, I could move out there in the middle of the woods and just roam the land and not see any living soul for weeks on end.  I could have moved in and lived in that old farm house with no renovations and been perfectly content and happy to die in the downstairs bedroom where most of my ancestor's took their last breath.  Had my funeral from the parlor, where their funerals were held.

My sister needs a large kitchen and family room--thus the addition.  She inherited the Centennial Farm and I did not and ....it is a very good thing she did because I never would have been able to afford it.

It's all good now , but....when they tore down the smaller house where all my ancestor's were born, to put on the addition...it was a very hard day for me. 

Whenever I drive up that way, I see the farm of my parent's where I was born and grew and my son now owns.  I drive by my Grandparent's farm, where I raised my children and Pammie now owns and...I have to be honest, it fills me with sadness that I am not living there now.

BUT--it is what it is, as they say.  I am the oldest generation now and I can look and see that all THE LAND is being well cared for.  That's a good thing!  I don't need to live there and I am EXTREMELY lucky that I can still go back "home"--it's ALL still there.

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I got home around 6:00 and look what's going on next door!!!  They may be cleaning up their pile of junk--or moving.  Either one is fine with me. LOL