Second Cousins

How many of you are close to your second and third cousins? Most everyone is close to first cousins, but I am very close to quite a few of my second and third cousins (and believe me, I have a lot of them). Anyhow, I was thinking that probably the reason I’m so close to them is because my Mother and Dad were very close to their cousins. Also annually, there was a family reunion on both my Mother and my Dad’s side, so I was able to get to know my relatives when I was growing up.

Now, the reason I’m thinking about second cousins this week, is because I just lost a second cousin. My cousin, Mary, from Pennsylvania passed away a week ago, Thursday. I have been thinking of her and her family all week. I haven’t heard if she was sick or if it was unexpected. I tried calling her sisters, but wasn’t able to reach them. I’m going to try again today. I wrote to her sister, who I had an address for, in July to let them know I was coming home in August and told her I’d like to get together. I didn’t hear back from any of them. I chalked it up to everyone being busy. I wish now, that I had tried calling when I was there, but the time goes by so quickly when I’m there. Over these 40 years I have lost two other second cousins that I was close to when growing up. They were both on my Dad’s side also. Roger “Chip” and Rodney.

I’m glad I was able to get together with my second cousins on my Mom’s side when I was home, and hope to stay in touch with them.

Mary is the cousin I have talked about in my blog, she and her sisters and one brother grew up on a large dairy farm. She is the one that I told you used to be envious that, though I was a farm girl, I never had to milk cows, clean gutters, feed calves, etc. like she had to. (Yes, I was fortunate, but I would remind her that my Dad’s farm was no where near as large as her Dad’s). Her Dad and my Dad were close as they were growing up, and remained close as adults. We often visited them. Even if the girls had company, they still had to do their chores, their Dad “cracked the whip!” After we were both out of high school, we spent some time hanging out together with her friends, until I realized they were not the best influence on either of us. She didn’t agree though, so we parted ways.

I only saw Mary two times since I was married. Once was in the early 90’s when on a visit home, her Dad arranged for us to get together. I had supper with him and Mary and her sisters. Then the three of them came to my Mom’s 80th birthday party in 2005.

Mary was my age. Her Mother and my Mother often shopped together for school clothes. Mary and I always went with them. (I’ve also written about that on one of my postings.) Mary and I spent a week at my church camp upstate Pennsylvania in the mountains, three summers in a row. I have great memories of those times. I had my brownie camera that I bought from money raised picking strawberries, and I took pictures at camp of lots of the girls that we were with. Isn’t it funny though, that I have no photos of Mary and I at that camp, I didn’t take any pictures of the two of us. I wish I had. In fact, I don’t have any pictures of Mary, except one taken with her sisters at my Mom’s 80th birthday party and the time we were together for that supper with her Dad.

A funny thing is that the week she died I was thinking of Mary, thinking how I missed getting together with her and her sisters when I was home. I even thought to myself that I would write her a note on the weekend. Then my brother called and told me on Sunday that he saw her obituary in the paper. I realized that I was thinking of her on the same day that she died! On Tuesday evening I asked my covenant group at church to pray for her family, and told them about how I was thinking of her probably the same day she died, and they told me that was most likely a “spiritual prompting”, and that she probably felt me thinking of her. I sure hope so.