I wasn't found under a cabbage leaf!

This was one of my grandmother's sayings when talking about her heritage.  Family has always been important to me.  During the first 12 years of my life weekends were full of family gatherings, summer meant reunions and playing with second and third and maybe fourth cousins I saw only at these functions, and every holiday meant a great dinner and playtime with the kids in the backyard at an uncle or aunt's house.

Someone said to me after I was married and had been living here for a few years, "Don't YOU have any family?  All I hear you talk about is Gary's family."  Well, yes.  I do have family. None of them live close by.  We didn't visit them often in Ohio.  Mom and Dad didn't live where my cousins lived.  Mom didn't like the Henderson relatives very much and she was estranged from her brother so that meant I never saw the only cousin I had on that side of the family.  Even offers in the last few years to take her to the Cattell reunion were met with her refusal to attend.

My mission in the past few years has been to keep the lines of communication open with my cousins and re-connect with other family.  Heritage is important to me.  Memories are important.  Who else remembers playing in the yard at the cellar house except Ralph and Kay?  Playing games at the low coffee table with Grandma Henderson?  Dale remembers that.  The spinner Christmas ornaments?  Pat and I loved those and she sent me one of Grandma's to add to our tree.  Those are the things that make family special.  Sharing those memories.

At Mom's funeral six of the 13 Henderson cousins were together.  In the week after that I saw four of them.  We plan to get together sometime this summer for a picnic.  More FB messages are exchanged. Plans are made to get together for dinner when we need a break from cleaning out Mom's house.

On Thursday we made another connection.  I had found the original handwritten minutes from the first Cattell reunions.  I needed to pass those on to someone who still was connected with the reunions so they could be added to the other sets.  I contacted Marilyn (Mom's second cousin) who contacted her brother  Phil who then invited us to their home.  We had such a nice talk about various relatives, enjoyed looking at quilts and several piece of antique furniture in their home, and then Phil and his wife Glenda took us to another cemetery to see the graves of my great-great grandparents and those of one of my favorite great-great aunt and great-great-uncle.  Megan was locating graves of those ancestors she had been placing on the Cattell family tree and we took many pictures of the stones.  Heritage.  Names that tied us together.

What was important to me was making the connection.  We shared enough about our lives and made some connections that will tie Megan to that family also.  Plus Phil's son sells club calves and we will be in the market for some nice show animals in a couple of years when Landon is old enough for 4-H.  Family connections.

While this past week was emotional and I found many things in the house that were trashed, I found many treasures too.  Mom did keep everything, much of it worthless.  But she did keep those Cattell Reunion minutes which prompted a trip to Beloit, a visit to the Damascus and the East Goshen cemeteries, and a visit with Phil and Glenda, Mom's second cousins on the Cattell side of the family.

I wasn't found under a cabbage leaf.  I have Cattell blood mixed with the Henderson - and Ritchie - and Clemson - and Kern.