The recent passing of cousin Carl has brought up thoughts of the other cousins that are no longer with us. As I recollect there was Grant, he was in the Navy and on leave and died in an auto accident. I don’t know his last name; his mother is Vivian, Dad’s sister as I believe she had a husband before Darrel. I don’t think I ever met Grant at least I don’t remember, of course I was pretty young, his death being sometime in the early 60’s. If anyone has a memory of Grant I would love to hear it.
Cheryl died of a brain aneurysm in the late 70’s or early 80’s she grew up in the most beautiful part of Oregon. Cheryl’s parents are Clayton and Fern ; Clayton is Mom’s 2nd oldest brother. Cheryl had a couple of kids that her brother Larry adopted. They are both great kids that Jody and I got to meet at Clayton and Fern’s 60th anniversary celebration. I remember Cheryl as a bossy teenager, but at that time in my life everybody older and bigger than me was bossy. I never got to know her as an adult, wish I had.
Marsha died of cancer in the late 90’s or early 00’s; she was living in Texas at the time. She was married and had several kids, which relocated to Portland after her death. Marsha was a big wig in the hospitality industry, hotel management, corporate level and all that cool stuff. I got to know Marsha a little bit as an adult when she would come to San Diego for business and we would get together for dinner and tell all the old stories. I liked Marsha very much she had her stuff together. By the way Marsha was Clayton and Fern’s oldest child.
Tom died of cancer or the cure I am not sure which in 05. Tom was career Air Force retiring as a Major after 25 years. His parents are Paul and Wanda and have two sisters; Paul is Dad’s youngest brother. Tom was the closest to my age of any of my cousins and we had a lot of adventures as kids, teenagers, and young adults. He was a little older than me and had a car first; we had a lot of firsts together, we could have gotten into a lot of trouble if we had known how . Tom’s family and religion were his life but he never shoved it down your throat. My last visit with Tom was at his house in Clarkston and it was good, but very somber as we talked about the end and it was harder for me than for him. I miss you Tom.
Carl died of cancer around the 1st of May 2008, I am currently located about 3 hours away and I did not make the trip to see him before he passed. I am really sorry about that. His parents were Carl Sr (deceased) and Rosalee, they live in the same house in Petaluma Ca. for as long as I can remember he had one brother. Carl and his wife Robin still live in the same house that I first visited in the 70’s and they have two kids. He was upper management but saw the big picture and was lured to the real life of higher wages and way lower hours. Carl was 10 or more years older than me and my first memories of him were when he came to spend the summer with us when we lived in Hell’s Canyon. As a young sailor I would drive or fly or sail from San Diego and spend long weekends at his and Robin’s place, we went to a fireworks show on the 4th of July 1976 in Petaluma, when my ship pulled into San Francisco for the bicentennial. Carl resembled Cookie from 77 Sunset Strip and lived up to it. RIP Carl.
I have to admit I shed a couple while writing this.
P.S. Any Memories pass them along.
