The Last One

Last week, I had to tell my Mom that her cousin Garnet had died.

Garnet was a little older than Mom and had been one of the "anchors" of the family. She always was there if someone needed her. When my grandparents moved to Phoenix after spending their whole lives in Cleveland, a postcard arrived without fail every week with an update on the news in Cleveland and of the family. Garnet was married to the same man all her life and had 2 daughters. She worked at a department store and called my Grandmother every morning before she left for work, my Grandma Sadie would always say before hanging up,"Go make money."

My Mom was blessed with being a part of a very large family. Her father was one of nine, her mother, one of 8 children. Her life, as were our early years, was filled with extended family: grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. I remember wonderful times at my grandparents (her parents) with Sunday gatherings of barbecues, potato salad,jello molds and watermelon carefully cut to look like a basket. These times are a treasure that most kids don't have today. People live far away from their families, for reasons of work or weather.

Mom's cousins have all passed other than Harold Checel in Los Angeles (on her father's side) and possibly a few others that we don't keep in touch with. Garnet was the cousin who nicknamed Mom "Rena Gadena" and for many years I put that on her birthday cake "Happy Birthday Rena Gadena"; she loved that. Mom's brothers are gone and her cousins now too. When I told her about Garnet, she said with a mixture of sadness and wonder "I must be the last one."

I try to put myself in Mom's place mentally at times like this, so I don't just brush her feelings off. I love my cousins...I love my sister and brother. How would it be to be the "last one"? I can't begin to imagine that. So today: call your cousins, your sisters, your brothers....tell them how much you love them and how important they are. We all make up that part of the puzzle that brings our lives into the finished picture. I love you all.