March 12, 2013
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Bless Be the Ties That Bind
My favorite playmates were my cousins Ernestine and Dorothy Ann. We remained close all our lives and were more like sisters. Sadly, Ernestine died a couple of weeks before Christmas in 2011….about 6 weeks before her 81st birthday. She and Dorothy Ann lived together for many years after Dorothy Ann separated from her husband and their parents had also died.
I called Dorothy Ann earlier today. She turned 81 in Feb….was a year and 9 days younger than her sister. She apologized for talking so much about her aches and pains and coming shoulder replacement surgery…told her it was okay…at our age health issues are a big part of our lives! I did tell her I’d been doing family genealogy and found our fathers’ Harris line went all the way back to Charlemagne and Edward III…as thousands of others also do, so we aren’t considered special or royalty even if we did have some of that same royal blood now full of cholesterol, ha! I’m so glad we can visit often by phone; but I’ll plan another trip to Wisconsin this year. We were 7 or 8 years old when this photo was taken by my dad when we lived in West DePere, Wisconsin. Our mothers were school friends who grew up and married brothers, and all of us lived together in the same house during the early years of the Great Depression, and later went on summer fishing trips together with our parents. So maybe those are other reasons we’ve always been close! We were so young and innocent when this photo was taken back in 1939 or 1940 in West DePere, Wisconsin by my dad. My mother liked it so much, she had dad enlarge it and she colored it with crayons or colored pencils. I added the Shamrocks for the coming holiday, however.
Comments (5)
I hope you can get there soon. Hope Dorothy Ann’s surgery is successful.
I do love your picture, and you are from what I call, among the most beautiful states in America. We took our children on a summer trip to learn about Frank Lloyd Wright for a summer of exploring, and though we loved Taliesin, but we found so much more, and we so enjoyed our stay in Madison, seeing the University area, and finding such an alive and well Catholic community there for a joyous celebration.
We are only now beginning that life’s phase of losing close friends, and it takes character and some faith to sustain us, but I would believe you to be a person who could show a lot of us how to say farewells, continue with the precious memories, all the while carrying their sweet spirits on with a little St. Patrick’s Day joy. I find you to be a wonderful example with your ability to share the love of living and not to dwell in the pain of the loss. That is a great challenge for most of us. Blessings from my heart, Barb Heintz
Barbara Everett Heintz, “Pinkhoneysuckle,” Amazon, Xanga, and Create Space
@PinkHoneysuckle - Thanks for the mini Barbara and a bigger thanks for your kind comments. I enjoyed living in Wisconsin as a child and have enjoyed going back to visit relatives still there. But I’ve spent most of life in Indiana and now planning on moving closer to one of the daughters in PA. Life goes on but love of family and friends make the “going on” part a lot nicer!
Joyce,
I love Indiana, and I love Pennsylvania, and I am with you on making decisions to be near the ones who are going to be your supports when life becomes more complex. You are very wise. My brothers and sisters became so separated by our backgrounds and where we wound up from the trials of Appalachian living, that with Mom and Dad at rest, we have no center. Just none of the older ones stepped up to make that happen for us, and I am the one who lives the most distance from any of them, so I have had my own children, and they seem to become our help and our strength. My mother used to always see there was a family reunion, and the aunts carry on, but it is with their kids who all live close around in Franklin Country, Tennessee.
I find that my older sons are very welcoming, and the grandchildren are significantly a joy. I hope that you will keep us up on the move as you change locations, and from what I have seen, you definitely are capable of finding silver linings, something which I have had to work very hard to have a sense of.
I was very touched that several of our friends came out with beautiful, almost testimonial acknowledgments of their Catholic faith yesterday, for most of us do not talk a lot of that sort of thing. Pope Francis is a definite breath of fresh air, and makes us all hopeful for our church over the next decade.
I appreciate your advice and countenance. Blessings, Barb Heintz
What a great treasure to have! I love looking at old pictures.