In Passing...

Last fall I wrote about visiting my cousin Rosemary and her family (Family reunion...9/26/15). When I was a kid, she lived with her husband Chuck just down the street from us until they built a house out in the NW suburbs. They spent a lot of time at our house and being older,  well they were more like an aunt and uncle to me than cousins.

Anyway, what I wanted to mention was Rosemary's visit to Alaska. In the early 90's, she apparently was on a tour of Alaska with her sister-in-law. We got a call from her one day, saying they were in Fairbanks. So we drove into town and picked them up. Now back then, we had an old Ford Bronco. It was great in the winter, four wheel drive and all, but because I'd installed heavy duty rear springs, well it rode kind of hard. In fact, we'd nick named it the bucking Bronco.

So we're driving them out to our place on the Chena Hot Springs Rd. Back then it was a narrow two lane road with lots of frost heaves, kind of like a mogul ski course. I remember looking back in the rear view mirror and seeing their heads bobbing up and down like a couple of bobble heads as we road over the rough spots. I imagined them both getting whiplash and seas sickness simultaneously. But when we got to the house, she never said a word about the rough ride and we had a great visit.

Now one thing to keep in mind is that Rosemary was adopted by my uncle. So even for a cousin, we weren't really related, except by her feelings, the warmth she always had for my family. The nicest thing she ever said to me was that I was real family to her, and that was special, for both of us.

Rosemary passed on last week after a short illness. She was 85. And we never did take that family reunion photo.