Siblings

October 1, 2012  Monday

Robert and Laura Meredith had six children.  Their daughter, Dorthy was my Grandmother. I called her Grandma James.  I remember Great Grandmother Laura Meredith as a beautiful yet frail lady in her eighties when I was in junior high.  I knew her as a relative that stayed with my Grandma for weeks, sometimes months at a time, and then in the nursing home in Farmer City, Illinois. 

I did not know to ask—but what was it like having six children? Were they all birthed at home?  And it seems like there was one more who died as a young man.  I will check with my Mother, but Great Grandmother Laura may have birthed seven.

Now the last of them are gone on to heaven home.  Great Uncle Lester died recently.  He was in his nineties.  Like his other sister, Great Aunt Lou, dementia robbed them of a good end.   I have memories of Uncle Lester and his wife traveling with a trailer in their retirement parked at the farm, and visiting us once in El Paso in 1980?  Aunt Lou and her husband lived part of their retirement at the corner house on the farm, so we got to visit that vivacious lady when we visited Grandpa and Grandma James’ farm.

It is hard for our granddaughter to wrap her mind around her own parents having siblings, let alone her grannie having siblings.  And maybe, when she is a grannie, the last of my generation will be dying out.  And she will wonder what it was like for me to have a younger sister, and two younger brothers.  

Next weekend, the descendants of Robert Laura Meredith gather to remember and learn.  And their great-great-great grandson, David Mace Williamson turns two years old.  And their great-great-great granddaughter finished her second week of kindergarten.  And their great-great-great grandsons in Missouri will soon be moving to Louisiana.  I wonder how many great-great-greats they have?  I can think of at least a dozen.

My Grandpa James still has a little sister alive---the last of his side.  Grandpa Wilbur James had three sisters.  Cousins still live near the original farms.