"Over the river and through the woods." These words were used to open that old song which is ordinarily heard at Thanksgiving time. This opening line of that song seemed a perfect title to begin what I intend to be a short tribute to my great-aunt Louise.
Many, perhaps even most of, my memories of Aunt Louise are centered around family trips to her home in Baltimore... every year at Thanksgiving while growing up as a child.
Memories still very clear and vivid even now in my 30s. The big old wooden swing at the edge of her driveway. The pond in her front yard that had the small island... with the little bridge leading up to it. The little playhouse which sat farther back from the driveway and up against the trees... which I always used to enjoy playing hide and seek in with my cousins Kelli and Andy... and somehow or another managed to get locked in there on more than one occasion!
Our last trip as a family there for the Thanksgiving holiday... well, our last overnight trip anyway... came in 1989, just a few days short of my 12th birthday. We had some snow earlier in the week and my cousins had built a snowman in the yard prior to our arrival. My younger cousin Andy, he was 7 years old at the time, knocked the snowman over and then blamed it on me. And Aunt Louise believed him! I remember being so mad over it then... but it's one of those memories I look back on now and can't help but chuckle a little. Kids being kids.
Aunt Louise loved children. She loved people in general anyway... but specifically as a child, I remember her home as being a very welcoming place for children of all ages. She had a very kind personality and a seemingly endless amount of patience. I never once heard her yell or raise her voice... ever!
Aunt Louise was a happy person. She loved to smile, and could truly light up a whole room... and always gave the greatest hugs too.
My visits with her and my great-uncle Bill were not as frequent during my teen and adult years, but we still kept in touch as often as was possible. When I lived in New Jersey from 2002-03, I used to enjoy stopping by to see them while traveling back and forth to/from Virginia... and will always treasure the hand-written letters I've received from her in the mail in more recent years.
Aunt Louise passed away on Monday morning... August 29th 2011, following a brief illness. It makes me sad that she is gone but I am thankful and very blessed to have so many wonderful memories of her.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
New Profile Picture and Some More Things...
Updated my blog with a new picture on the front. This is actually one from my father's collection of old photos. His parents, my grandparents Daniel & Muriel Kinnaly are featured here in this photograph on their wedding day. It was June 17th 1941... which would make it 70 years ago to this very day. Grampa and Nana are at center with both sets of my great grandparents on either side.
I'm very blessed to have this nice piece of genealogy in my collection. 1941 was actually a significant year for family history in a couple of different ways. Grampa and Nana's first child, my father's oldest sister and my Aunt Mary (born the year after in 1942) was married to a very good man who happened to be born in 1941. Patrick Francis ("Frank") Lavigne... my uncle Frank.
I lost my uncle Frank this past winter. He passed away on December 31st... nine months after having been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Frank did rather well... he was given 3 to 6 months to live and actually seemed to be improving in health through the aggressive treatments he was offered. That six month mark came and went and I think we all were pretty confident that he would beat the odds and live for several more years.
But cancer is a wild beast, too unpredictable it seems. Evidently, sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Frank took a very quick turn for the worse. I will never forget that morning... December 31st... I was off work for a long holiday weekend... sitting in my room, relaxing with a cup of coffee... my dad knocked on the door, came in and told me... "Just got a call from Eileen." He didn't need to say any more. Eileen is the middle sibling in my dad's family. Uncle Frank had passed... and less than two months away from his 70th birthday.
I will always miss Uncle Frank. I knew him well when I was a child growing up, saw him often on trips to New England with the family... even tipped him over in a rowboat on a lake in Maine one time when I was 6 years old (a story we laughed about often over the years). We grew slightly apart later as I did not see him or Aunt Mary at all for several years between 1995 and 2006... but in those last few years between '06 and 2010, I made it a point to go and re-visit with my New England-dwelling part of the family more and more often and we got to know each other again. And he is still probably one of my favorite relatives outside of my immediate family.
Alright, this went on for a little bit longer than I intended it to. Storms outside so I should close down the laptop for now...
I'm very blessed to have this nice piece of genealogy in my collection. 1941 was actually a significant year for family history in a couple of different ways. Grampa and Nana's first child, my father's oldest sister and my Aunt Mary (born the year after in 1942) was married to a very good man who happened to be born in 1941. Patrick Francis ("Frank") Lavigne... my uncle Frank.
I lost my uncle Frank this past winter. He passed away on December 31st... nine months after having been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Frank did rather well... he was given 3 to 6 months to live and actually seemed to be improving in health through the aggressive treatments he was offered. That six month mark came and went and I think we all were pretty confident that he would beat the odds and live for several more years.
But cancer is a wild beast, too unpredictable it seems. Evidently, sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Frank took a very quick turn for the worse. I will never forget that morning... December 31st... I was off work for a long holiday weekend... sitting in my room, relaxing with a cup of coffee... my dad knocked on the door, came in and told me... "Just got a call from Eileen." He didn't need to say any more. Eileen is the middle sibling in my dad's family. Uncle Frank had passed... and less than two months away from his 70th birthday.
I will always miss Uncle Frank. I knew him well when I was a child growing up, saw him often on trips to New England with the family... even tipped him over in a rowboat on a lake in Maine one time when I was 6 years old (a story we laughed about often over the years). We grew slightly apart later as I did not see him or Aunt Mary at all for several years between 1995 and 2006... but in those last few years between '06 and 2010, I made it a point to go and re-visit with my New England-dwelling part of the family more and more often and we got to know each other again. And he is still probably one of my favorite relatives outside of my immediate family.
Alright, this went on for a little bit longer than I intended it to. Storms outside so I should close down the laptop for now...
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