80th birthday Party/ Reuion's

Saturday I went to my Aunt Bonnie's 80th birthday party. Aunt Bonnie is my mother's youngest sister,

My mother passed away 4 years ago and her oldest sister Martha passed away a week ago.

Now my Aunt Bonnie is the only one left out of 3 brothers and 2 sisters,and she turned 80 years old Saturday.

My cousins worked very hard in getting friends and family together for this big event. I my self was looking forward to seeing my aunt and all my cousins, some I haven't seen in 20 years or more.

My aunt and my mother did not look a like when they were young but as they had gotten older they started to look more a like. Now when I look at her it is like looking at my mother and it makes me smile and think about my mother. I miss my mother very much. My aunt is also very active and full of life. She has had her share of grief. She lost her Youngest brother when he was 21 killed in world war II, Watched her favorite sister have a break down and watch her get put into a state hospital, buried her husband of 30 years and bury her oldest son when he was 48 years old. Then she buried her 2 oldest brothers and her 2 oldest sisters. I would think that is very hard to take of life. but she took it in stride and went on with life and living and showed us that we must grieve but then pull are self's up and go on because life is not over for us yet.

After visiting with her for awhile all of us cousins got reacquainted since it had been so long since we had seen each other . And she sat back and smiled at all of us. you could tell that seeing all of us together once again brought back memories of yesterday,and made her happy.

We talked about when we were kids and all the things we did when we got together. We showed all our children and grandchildren pictures and we took a lot of pictures to mark the event. One of my cousin got up and impersonate Elvis and the late great Louie Armstrong and we gave him standing ovations and laughed till we had tears.

Aunt Bonnie's children made a video of her life and all her siblings. There were 6 all together 3 boys and 3 girls. All our parents were in this video when they were young and through all the years and get together's and it made us laugh and made us cry and made us look once again back on yesterday's when we were young so long ago and life was so new and exciting. I walked away with the thought of where did the years go. It was just yesterday when I was 10 years old playing with my cousins at grandma & grandpa's house at Thanksgiving.

I was glad that I went and I had a very good time and touched base with everyone and even got some e-mails. Now we can stay in touch and not wait so long to see one another.

It was a very good day that I will cherish.