Its All Relative

You know those people who tell you that their (obscure relative) always said (whatever) and that these were words to live by, We all know them. I have tried to figure out if anyone in my family will be able to say "Beverly always said.... and I try to live by her words" I don't think I ever said anything memorable. Maybe "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" but Erma Bombeck said it first .

My grandfather always told me "Don't ever be anywhere that you would be ashamed to be if the Lord came back". Now for a young lady who was a bit rebellious, that was a guaranteed guilt trip. Many times I have silently prayed "Dear Jesus, Not Now".

But my Grandmother Prestage did say that we all have relatives that we are ashamed of and relatives that are ashamed of us. I find that to be pretty true in most families. My sister and I had a small family. We do not have a cousin. Our Mother was an only child , our Dad had one sister who had no children, Our family reunion meals were not the ones you read about in Southern Living, where food is spread out on boards under the trees. We shared a large order of fries from McDonalds.

But our Dad's sister was a prize to have and my favorite relative of all time. My sister's middle name is Mildred.

Aunt Mildred graduated from a country school in Greer County Oklahoma. She went away to Business School in the big City. She had room and board with people she met when she walked down the street and saw their sign. She and that family were friends until she died. She was beautiful and a true "Flapper". She married our Uncle Gid when she was 19 and he was nearly 42. She took good care of him til he died some 40 years later. Uncle Gid had a son, Earl, one year older than her. He came back from WWII and all of the family lived and farmed in Greer County after a brief adventure in Arizona. The first 12 years of my life were spent on that farm within shouting distance of my grandparents and Aunt Mildred, Uncle Gid and Earl. Aunt Mildred tilled the ground, kept the house, milked the cows, and all those chores that a farm wife did. She would get up, fix breakfast, make the beds and do the dishes while the men fed the cows and hogs and they would go to the fields together. They came in at dinner (not lunch) and while the men rested she fixed the big meal of the day. They again rested while she cleaned up the kitchen and this was repeated in the evening, except the meal was left over from the dinner. I still have not figured out why she felt compelled to go to college.

Somehow in between all of that she found time do her hair with "henna" a dye that turned hair a gun metal type of ugly red. (I think I may have inherited my love of hair color from her), she sewed her clothes, always the same pants and shirt, she shopped, gardened and unknown to a lot of people took care of the equivalent of share croppers' kids by buying clothes and school supplies for them. They occasionally had prison laborers work during planting time and she took care of them , found out about their families and bought shoes and Christmas presents for these children. I never knew her to attend a Church of any kind but when she passed away we had several Greer County preachers at her service. I do know that she nursed and cared for Uncle Gid with all her being. We buried him one morning in August. She and Earl went to Amarillo from the burial and when they came back that evening he was our Uncle Earl. They lived happily ever after until the day of his death.

I don't know if you can count a cousin by marriage or not. But we did have one Aunt and two Uncles. We loved them all, I think my grandmother was in error, I don't remember having a relative I was ashamed of.