Sister~Cousins

Meyer's and Tribby's July 1967

I love this photo.  I just discovered it and I love the how you can see more than just a family gathering photograph.  Notice everyone is tense.  Almost as if we have been yelled at or forced.  I am the little five year old in the green dress with giant flowers in the front row. My cousin Shari is next to me, and we are the only ones smiling. What ever it is that has everyone else so uptight isn't affecting us little girls so much. We just know to smile when told "cheese".  My cousin Billy has a suit & bow tie on. What's up with that?  My Mother, who always is smiling and happy in photos, but here she can barely be seen hiding behind my Aunt Nancy's hair.  My sister Julie also is always hamming it up and this is a rare photo of her being still and somber. Julie is the sweet little seven year old in the center. The other day when this was discovered, Shari, Janet (the baby in the photo), and myself, started trying to analysis this photograph.It was a good laugh.

Family can be interesting.  Very complex or very simple.  Sometimes, I think for most, somewhere in between.  I believe that when you have a dysfunctional family, you are very much clinging to each other, knowing you know each others secrets.  You need each other to survive.

Through the years, I have been Blessed to stay in touch pretty well with my cousins. Of course there are times we get busy and are not as close as we wish, however given the fact that we live across this nation in multiple states (as well as countries, with one cousin that lived in Canada for 7 years), we have always been there for each other. Not so well with my boy cousins, somehow, ever though we love each other and all, we didn't stay as close.  Except the silly boy in the striped shirt.  That is my cousin Rob, whom I was very close to. (He even lived with us for a while).  Unfortunately, we lost Rob to suicide several years back when he was just shy of his 40th birthday.

Through recent tragedy, I have reconnected more with my cousins. We don't have as many distractions now that our children are grown (well, mine anyway). We have vowed to stay connected.  We now feel more like sister's than cousins. We will keep our priorities straight.  We will try desperately to meet yearly with a fun Sister~Cousin trip. 

These girls know me better than anyone.  They understand who I am and how I got here.  My sister and I both are both so lucky to have each other and now we have the cousins to lean on and to embrace.

Janet, Janis, Shari

I am very fortunate to have these women in my life.