I’m home – not many photos taken this visit but I thought I’d introduce you to my family. There are 6 of us kids and Mom. My dad died 32 years ago and that makes me even more grateful that Mom is still with us. They all live within a 3-4 hour drive of each other and with the move to Big Canoe, I’m a lot closer too – it’s an 8.5 hour drive for me to my sister Maureen’s house where Mom lives too. As you can imagine, it’s hard to get us all together at one time – this photo was taken the last time we were all together in 2016.
On this trip I got to see and visit with everyone but Pat and Ann. Luckily, I did see them last month when we went up to Virginia for Kevin’s wedding.
I’m a middle child and I like to refer to myself as the oldest of the youngest girls … Ann and Maureen are younger and the other 3 are older than me. (Kevin is the other middle child and just a year older than me)
I’m grateful that they’ve all stayed safe during the pandemic and hope and pray it stays that way. Ann and Maureen are still practicing RNs and I’ve been especially concerned about them (and Mom). Funny thing about us … Mom and all 4 of us girls are RNs. I’m not really sure why the other three went into nursing other than my Dad encouraged all of us in that direction … but for me, I wanted to help others and I had Mom’s good example to follow. I have a very significant memory of volunteering at the hospital as a Candy Striper when I was 13 or 14 and seeing Mom with a patient. She was so caring and compassionate and for the first time I saw her in a very different light. I wasn’t the easiest child to raise but I think I’ve made up for it.