How Am I Related to You?

My dad’s older brother, Pat, passed away last year, but his wife Betty is still alive and kicking. Their youngest daughter, Shirlene, is the cousin of mine who lives in Logan and feeds my college boys, lets them use her washer and dryer when the apartment ones are just too gross to get the job done (like when washing temple clothes), and generally takes them in as needed. Shirlene invites the college cousins to Sunday dinners, which means my older boys have had quite a few opportunities to get to know my Aunt Betty. Both of them have enjoyed the chance to get to know some of their extended family a bit better. However, they didn’t know exactly how they were related to any of these people, so Shirlene drew Nathan a diagram once, so he could visualize the relationship.  

The whole family relationships thing on my dad’s side gets a bit confusing because my dad is the youngest of his siblings by quite a long way. There was a twenty-one-year age difference between my dad and his oldest brother. My dad was the same age as many of his nieces and nephews and was basically raised by his older sister Shirley and her husband. As a kid I had no idea how I was related to any of these people. We just called everyone cousin. But as a college student I took the time to figure it all out. But trying to explain all of that via text or phone was not all that helpful for Nathan. Thank goodness for Shirlene’s diagram. I think he has it mostly figured out now. LAUGHING WITH TEARS SMILEY 

Today Shirlene hosted a 98th birthday party for my Aunt Betty. Kevin, Matthew, Malia and I drove up for the festivities. Daniel and Nathan were also there, along with Jacob, Rachael’s college student, and my parents. There were a lot of other extended family in attendance as well, so it was a fun gathering. While I may not know all of my extended family well, at least I can say that I know where most of the attendees fit into the family tree. And I was able to point people out so that Nathan could place them on the appropriate branches as well. 

We don’t see this degree of extended family all that often, but honestly, it was nice to see people at a birthday party rather than a funeral. Over the past ten years or so, most of our family reunions have been more solemn affairs. This time pink was the theme, and we got cake and ice cream! So happy birthday to my Aunt Betty! I hope that I age as well as she has!