The Passing of Time

One of my father's cousins passed away last week. Yesterday Mom and Dad went to the funeral service. Janice was the family historian and had traced the family line back to three seperate Mayflower passengers and countless other individuals. With her departure we have lost a living connection to our ancestory, another individual with a wealth of stories and information. Janice was always somewhat reluctant to share her collection of family history. She spent hours traveling and researching and I suppose a good amount of money sending for public records and certificates, but if I could find something to share with her, maybe a copy of an old photograph or a small amount of money, she would often share with me the information I was seeking.

The photo above is one she probably would have loved to have, nine of her grandparent's eleven children. Her mother, Maude, was the eldest girl, seen here holding her baby brother, Joe. My grandmother, Florence, is standing next to her. Of all these children, only the three little girls in the front are still living, the older two suffering from the effects of an aging mind. Only Aunt Margaret still has clear thoughts and she is now 93 years old. Aunt Helen and Aunt Harriet are now 95 and 97. (I thinking someone in this family should have had a child named Methusela.)