Reply #30: I grew up with TONS [View All]

Of wonderful great aunts in my family, in my town. None were like the others. They were all different. They had an impact on me as a child, in different ways, but not like my parents, or even grandparents. It was just interesting to have a large extended family, that all got along with each other, and not many of them alike. I felt that the older generation were the leaders in the family, keeping everyone together, kind of being beacons and icons for the rest of us.

Well, they started to die. Who was to take their place? Mostly people scattered. I realized that nobody could take their place, but that the younger generations would have to serve that role now. Yet, they (and we) were all different. It won't ever be the same, but it will be something, and that something is the way the torch is passed.

My connection spiritually to my whole family is very deep, even cousins that I don't really ever see or contact. Whenever I do practice gratitude type things, it starts with family. And I have a lot of gratitude for all those aunts in my life.

PS--I also grew up hearing tons of family stories. Here is one. I had one great aunt who excelled in athletics at a time when women's sports was a bit out of favor. Well, she won the state women's golf tournament. It was announced in the paper, and she was really proud. She bought up a bunch of papers and brought them home and put them in her room. But her brothers had seen the announcement in the paper, and just stared at her and wouldn't speak to her. Why? Because a woman was only supposed to have her name in the paper three times-- when she was born, when she got married, and when she died. So, she never admitted she had all those papers and just took them up to the attic. The reason I remember that story is that I heard it so many times, LOL. I have a picture of her playing golf in a long black DRESS--down to her ankles!! (seriously)