Aunt Nell

Funerals are sadly often the only time we get to see family that we don't live near.  My great aunt Nell passed away last week and Monday we traveled to Mt. Pleasant to her funeral.  Aunt Nell was a pistol - she was quick to tease, easy to laugh, and fun to be around.  She along with my Dad's other aunts organized our Adams Family Reunions for years until their health declined. I think they always hoped that the torch would be picked up by the younger generation and the tradition would continue on, but sadly it has not. I always looked forward to the family reunions because I loved seeing those aunts and my second and third cousins.  But as time as marched on, the gatherings have ceased and the only reunion we've had was Aunt Nell's memorial. So I guess in a way she got us all together again, although it didn't last very long.

My brother Jason performed the service so it was nice to get to see him and the kiddos.  I guess a cemetery is an odd place for cousins to get to play, but about the only thing for them to do was climb on tombstones, much to mine and my sister-in-law's dismay. It was hot though, so we had to bring them back up to the only shade tree during the ceremony because there wasn't room under the tent for everyone.

At one point Kylie stood on a tombstone and I asked her not to stand on it because that wasn't very nice, and she asked me if it was hurting the person buried underneath. Kids say very funny things.  The also found a tombstone that some family members had brought trinkets to, one of them being an old pick-up truck garden decoration. So I explained to them that this was a grandfather's tombstone, as it said, and that he must've had an old truck or liked them and someone wanted to bring one for him here. Then I had to make them stop playing with it.