A Beautiful Day

Today has been windy but beautiful. A day to work out in the yard, visit with the neighbors, cook some pork steaks, and sit on the porch with your love one and watch the birds.

We take it all for granted that it will be there to do again tomorrow, next week.

I few of you know my cousin is seriously ill. He is the first one of our generation to be ill.  There are 8 of us cousins. My brother and I are the youngest, the two oldest are girls who live in Indiana and the next 4 live in the Chicago area. I am the baby of the group.

here is my brother, dad and I with the Chicago cousins.

We do have pictures of all 8 of us together, but they are few and far in between. It seems, one of us is always missing. When my Mom died two were missing, when my Uncle died there were two missing, when my Aunt died my brother couldn't make it.

so there were 7....

me, John, Marty, Mary, Tom, Donna and Deb

When I bought 1515, I dreamed of us all together again on the front porch

Oh but there was 4 of us........

John, me, my brother and Tom

What about when Grandad was sick in the hospital?

Oh there was 7 of us, John was in Vietnam

Well.....3 of us

Grandad, me, Tom and Deb

Like I said when i bought the house, I had hoped. The 8 of us have not been together, but 7 of us have been and stayed at 1515. The best visit was when my cousin Tom and his wife came in Nov 2009. Tom and I stayed up late, he told me stories about Grandad, about the house, about my Dad, he gave me a ledger Grandad had to pay bills with. I will never forget that visit, it was just the 2 of us and it was so precious.

Buying 1515 has brought us all back together, maybe not all at once but we find we are there more for each other. It is not just a funeral when I see them. It is now a birthday family reunion. We text, we email we talk and I feel like I know them all over again. It has been a strange pull of fate.

The next picture was taken the week I took possession of 1515

Here is my cousin Tom and his wife in front of 1515 where all the family has had their picture taken since 1926. We were all so happy, telling stories, laughing.........

A week later the diagnosis came.

Now my cousins wife has let me know it is time to come to Chicago to see Tom.  Tom the middle cousin, the one who like me pays attention to family history...especially when it comes to my Grandad's Railroad activities.

So my Indiana cousins will be headed up there next Sunday. There will be 4, Mary, Marty, Tom and me. But I think it will be a time we will never forgot, nor take for granted

I ask for your prayers.........