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I WAS AWAKENED EARLY THIS MORNING, WITH A PHONE CALL
One of the last two, of my Mother’s only first cousins had passed away, this morning at 1:00 A.M. He’d been in the hospital for a couple of weeks, and they had returned him to the nursing home. He’s been struggling for several weeks now.
Vernon was our walking encyclopedia of family history. If we needed to know anything, a person’s name, or a date, or a place, he knew and REMEMBERED!!! I went to see him in the hospital about two weeks ago, and even though it was hard for him to speak, he was still just bursting with family information he wanted to share. He LOVED to reminisce. About a year ago, wanting to get all the information, I could, for the family tree, I went to visit him and took with me, a good tape recorder, and some empty cassette tapes. He loved reminiscing about the family, especially the folks that I’m too young, at 72, to remember, and I came home with three hours of tape recorded VERNON MEMORIES.
His mother died when he was a very young child. After that, for a time, he and two of his brothers spent several months in an orphanage, because his father could not work and care for the children at the same time. Later on, his mother’s brothers and sisters (my grandmother being one of them) rallied around and after getting the boys out of the orphanage, those families all helped raise them.
He and both his brothers served in WW II at the same time.
About a year ago, at the Allen Family Reunion, we took a vote as to whether or not, to have the reunion every year, or every SECOND year. Vernon spoke up and said, “Well, I’d like to see us have it EVERY year, and I think you all know why.” Well, today was Vernon’s “why”.
I’m sure he’s in God’s house now. He knew him well, and they were VERY good friends.
I crawled out of bed, and went to the freezer in the basement for some beef to make beef and noodles. I had it done, and up there, by 11:30 for their lunch. I visited a bit, and came back home.
This afternoon, I’ve worked very hard at holding down the couch. It’s so hot outside, that I have NO DESIRE to go back out. I’ll be glad when this heat wave breaks. |
