Wisteria

I got home fairly early Friday afternoon from work. It was a busy week and I managed to get a root canal and put in ten hours at work on Thursday, so I was not going to do much stressing on Friday. My oldest daughter was home but getting ready to head back to college after a week's break. As we sat at the kitchen table talking, I grabbed the local paper from Sunday and Monday that I had not taken time to look at yet. My eye fell on the list of obituaries and I saw an old friend's name. I had been talking to other friends earlier and trying to make plans for Saturday. When I read the obituary and discovered that I had not missed the funeral as it was scheduled for Saturday, I knew what my plans were. I had to go say goodbye to an old friend. She was almost exactly forty years older than me, but we were fast friends. I had moved to the area only a few years before knowing no one but people through my husband since he was from the area. Then my marriage ended quite suddenl...

These are early photos of my brother and I. I was almost three when he was born. My mother tells the story of how she knew something was not quite right with him, but it wasn't until he was about three months old and we had moved to the west coast that the doctor told my mother that my brother had Down's Syndrome. The doctor also went on to tell her that he would likely never walk or talk and that he'd be better off in an institution. My mother said she was holding him in her arms at the time and looked down at him and just then he began to cry. My mother said she felt so sorry for her little baby and told the doctor she could never do that. I remember my mom telling me when I was a bit older that he was not like other children and he would never marry. "I will marry him!" I exclaimed, and took up his cause from then on. I would not let anyone talk about him or laugh at him, I would be his protector. And I did for a long time. But I eventually got married a...

I sort of left you hanging with the last Sibling Saturday post : but I didn't want to get too long-winded. Below is a scan of the photocopy I had made of the group photograph shown in that post and sent to Cousin Inez in Kentucky. Between her, me and another cousin or two, we came up with the names of almost everybody at the gathering. Part of the names show up in the newspaper clipping of the event, but some of the names and faces were a little tricky to identify. 1.    Terry (Charles Terry Woosley, wife of Elizabeth Watts, "Lizzie") 2.    Travis (F. Travis Diuguid, husband of Iva May Watts, "Ivy") 3.    Perkins (Earl Perkins Watts, son of C.B. & Amy Hardy Watts) 4.    Inez (nee Diuguid, daughter of Kate and Willie W. Diuguid) 5.    Shirley Wilson, Inez's first husband 6.    Aunt Ivy Diuguid (nee Watts) 7.    Kenneth Lee Watts (son of C.B. & Amy Hardy Watts) 8.    Annice (nee Underwood)...

Watts siblings - Hopkinsville, KY These eight siblings include my grandfather, C.B. Watts, as number five from the left. There was one more sibling, the oldest, Norman Ellis Watts, not pictured. He moved out to Arizona many years prior to this and died out there in 1962. Willis Lindsey Watts, called Pete, is number two in the photograph. Three is Aunt Ora Lacy. Four Aunt Ivy Diuguid. Six is Aunt Zeffie Woosley. Seven is Aunt Lizzie Woosley. Eight is Aunt Kate Diugiud Number one in this photo is Uncle Alvin Watts, though he mostly cut-off. The other photo of the group is blurry and I didn't scan it. You can see Uncle Alvin better in other pictures from the day. He is the one right in front of the post on the right in a white shirt and long tie below. Watts gathering - Hopkinsville, KY I can identify some of the people in this photograph, but not all. I find it funny that in this photograph and the one below, my father is blowing bubble gum for the camera. He was not qui...