Cousin Gathering July 2016

Quite a few of my cousins from both Mom and Dad came to celebrate my Mom's life

My ageless uncle, Marvin - still going strong at 95

My Mom's brother, Uncle Spud

Uncle Spud and cousin Ross

My sister, Mona, with Uncle Spud

Cousin Rick - first time I've seen him in over 50 years - My Mom's sister's son

Cousin Ross, my Mom's brother's (Spud) son

Cousin Susie, Mom's sister's daughter

My son's wife, Tina, her grandson, Sammy, and my daughter, Amy, holding Sammy

Me - with thanks to my cousin, Jessie May's husband, Sandy for the great photos of the day

 Jessie May's husband, Sandy

Cousin Jessie May, my Dad's sister's daughter 

My son, Tony, daughter, Amy, in background

My sister, Molly's granddaughter, Sierra, with her son, Jackson

My sister, Bonny's daughter, Carla

My grandson, Jesse

My sister Bonny's grandson, Tony

My cousin, Eddie's wife, Lora

Bonny's daughter Carla's husband, Larry, holding Amy and Dan's dog, Tillie

Cousin Susie's husband, Dean

My sister, Molly's, daughter, Teri

My sister Bonny's daughter, Kim, and sister Molly's daughter, Teri

My niece, Carla's daughter, Brittany, and her cousin, Karma

My granddaughter, Sara, with husband, Dan

Brittany with her boyfriend, Bryce, and brother, Tony

Amy's husband, Dan, with Tillie

Cousin Susie, my Dad's sister's daughter, and Cousin Eddie, my Dad's other sister's son

Meeting More Cousins!

When I began my cousin quest a few years back, I thought it would go faster and differently.  I started with a few cousins that I had kept in touch with over the years, and fully intended to do a profile on each as I met them.  What I found was that when we got together, it was hard to single out one cousin to interview and do a post about.  So as with everything else in life, this quest is evolving.  I still would like to do an in depth profile of each as every one I have found has had an interesting life. 

Eddie, Uncle Marvin, me, Susie, Theresa, Jessie May, Mona, Uncle Spud, Susie, Rick, and in front, the youngster, Ross.  

My cousin Susie's husband, Dean, and my Uncle Marvin, still going strong at 95.

My cousin, Susie, from my Mom's side on the left, my cousin, Susie, from my Dad's side on the right.  We are all about the same age, and they were some of my first companions.  We lost touch for many years so it is pretty special to be reunited.

Karma, Kim, and Carla

Clockwise from left, Jessie May, Susie, and Theresa holding my sister's grandson, Jackson

My sister, Bonny's daughter, Kim, and my sister Molly's daughter, Teri

My Cousin Eddie

My cousin Eddie is now retired, but he had 41 years at Boeing in the dream job:  building model airplanes.


At 18, he graduated from high school and went to work at Boeing in the tooling department, where he entered training to be a jig builder. He scored high on the initial exams, so management chose him to be a model builder.  


He left this job to join the Navy for four years, but when he got out of the military, he went back to Boeing and once again became a model builder.


Working with blueprints from Engineering, he built models of every new plane.  Each model went through extensive wind tunnel tests, coming back for modification to optimize lift, yaw, drag, etc.  With the perfect wind tunnel located in England, he traveled there more times than he can count.


The wind tunnel is approximately 15 meters in diameter, so they built each model at the maximum size to still fit into the wind tunnel.  Not your typical model airplane - with a wing span of 9' or more, a weight of several hundred pounds, and a cost of over a million dollars apiece.

My cousin Susie

Uncle Dick, 91 and counting. 

My cousin, Susie.

I just connected with her last year, but she already feels like a dear sister.  I was privileged to visit her art studio today.  I am attaching pictures so you can see what an accomplished artist she is.  

This cousin quest has already brought me a friend, who just happens to be one of my long lost cousins!

Cousin Quest

When I was growing up with a hermit father, I mostly missed out on interaction with my cousins. I don't even know how many I have or what their names are or where they live or what they do. My goal for 2010 is to seek them out and post a profile on each. I think there are about 26. I have them divided into several categories:

1. Never lost - have seen them from time to time - at least I would recognize them if I met them in the street, and have either an address or email for them: (hopefully they will lead me to others)

a. On my father's side: Susie, Theresa

b. On my mother's side: Susie

2. Mostly lost - I might recognize them, might be able to contact them at present: (Thank you Facebook)

a. On my father's side: Chris

b. On my mother's side: Ross

3. I know their name:

a. On my father's side: Meredith, Alice, Bunny, Jessie Mae, Eddie, David, Patty

b. On my mother's side: Darian, Wendy, Rick, Mike, Pat, Johnny, Pete, Steven, Mimi, Diane

4. Not sure of name, but know they exist:

a. On my father's side:

b. On my mother's side: Aunt Shirley 3 daughters?

Yikes, this may be more of a job than I thought.