All My Ancestors

My Aunt Dot died 9 September 2008.  She hadn’t been in good health for a very long time.  She was one of two of my dad’s 7 siblings who were still living and since my dad died in 2003, they became even dearer to me.

Aunt Dot and Uncle Jimmy never had children of their own so we nieces and nephews usually felt pretty special.  I still treasure the Fostoria crystal pieces she gave me for my wedding, and I spent time with them back in high school when I was at “camp” at Texas Tech in Lubbock.   One week was photography camp and the next week was yearbook camp–I didn’t see any sense in traveling the 4 hours it would take to get home and then back to Lubbock, so I spent the weekend with them.  They took me out for Mexican food and any other place I wanted to go.  I remember they had a combination washer-dryer–it was all in one machine, a front-loader of some sort.  Coming from my family of 5 I couldn’t believe that anyone could get along with just one machine for washing AND drying.

I’ve always loved this picture of them–possibly on their wedding day in 1950.  Uncle Jim always wore his hat at that angle and Aunt Dot always looked that dressed up (with later subtractions of corsage and hat).

Family members used to say I looked like Aunt Dot–I can certainly see the family resemblance.  I tend to blame my shortness and wideness on my German ancestry, but truth be told, I get some of it from the women in the Osborne family as well.

I always loved it when Aunt Dot and Uncle Jim came to Perryton for Thanksgiving or for Christmas.  They were often driving Uncle Jimmy’s very clean, very spiffy pickup.  (There were only working pickups in my life then–it’s what my dad and all the farmers drove–you didn’t just travel in them.)  Uncle Jim worked for Texas Tech and I’m pretty sure he could build or repair anything.  For a few years he would bring the clay pigeons and device he’d built to “throw” them, along with all the shotgun shells he’d reloaded.  His 6 brothers-in-law and various other relatives entertained themselves for hours out at the farm with his toys–Aunt Dot was in the kitchen bossing and cooking.  She had on her good clothes with an apron and she always smelled good.  I was in awe because she was so dressed up and also, she was one of the few women in my family who worked outside the home.

Part of my dealing with grief is to record the lives and deaths of my loved ones.  I went to www.findagrave.com to post Aunt Dot’s obituary only to find that it had already been posted.  I felt a little robbed, though ultimately I am grateful that there are so many generous folks out there who do that sort of thing in their area.

I didn’t get to attend her funeral–the only one of my dad’s siblings that I didn’t get to go to.  We were getting ready to go to Detroit and I just could not get away and I knew I couldn’t drive that far and back in one day–all the time I had if I really squeezed the calendar.

So now there is one.  My Uncle Ray, at 81, believes he’ll farm another year, because what else would he do?

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