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| Bill celebrating Christmas 2010 with our late neighbor Christmas 2010 |
Only three shopping days to Christmas!
Have you got all your shopping done?
Is it me or does Christmas seem to roll around really fast each year?
This weekend here at Casa Tipton-Kelly will be a quiet weekend. Just the way I want it.
This is the first Christmas that I will be without the love of my life, Bill Kelly. Sad times here folks.
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| Bill opening his Christmas gift from his neighbor Barbara Christmas 2010 |
Bill and I never did whoop it up on Christmas but we did enjoy the quiet times spent together during the Christmas celebrations all around us.
Pat is visiting his good friends Paul and Deb right now. He spends his Christmas with them and later, he will visit his brother and his wife and perhaps one of his nephews. In fact he is with Paul and Deb as I write this blog posting.
I didn't do anything today. In fact I didn't even get in my car and take a drive. I thought about going to Food Lion or the Restore Thrift Store but I opted to take a nap instead. It's just too cold outside and I have no desire to mingle and mix with the Christmas crowds. Yes, here in sales tax free Delaware there still are a lot of last minute Christmas shoppers.
Correction, I did do a little bit of updating on my Find a Grave account and my Ancestry.com account. I just found out recently the husband of one of my cousins died earlier this year about the same time Bill died. I'm on the outs with my cousin, she angry with me because I posted on my Ancestry.com account that our grandmother had a child out of wedlock in 1911 when she was only fifteen years old. Our grandmother died when my Mother was just a little over two years old at age twenty-nine.
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| My maternal grandmother, Ethel Darlington Hickman Hadfield. A grandmother I never met. She died at age 29 from complications of childbirth. She had a total of seven children. I will see her in Heaven. I look forward to that day. |
My Mother, before she died asked me to "find out about Uncle Albert." Turns out "Uncle Albert", who was raised as my grandmother's younger brother was actually her son out of wedlock. He died at age eleven years old from diphtheria. I did a lot of research including obtaining death records and birth records. The death record stated that my great grandmother and great grandfather were Albert's parents but the birth record indicated that Albert's actual mother was my grandmother and another man. They were both teenagers at the time. And back in 1911 having a child out of wedlock was a major scandal. Not so much now. Still, my cousin said "Grandmother wouldn't like it if I put that information in my Ancestry.com account." Oh give me a break~! Grandmother is dead. Let the truth come out. So, cousin and I have been estranged ever since. Her choice. This is something I've found out when researching my family history, every now and then one turns up a skeleton in the closet that other family members would prefer to keep in the closet. Wow, did I ever veer of the subject of my quiet Christmas weekend. Anyway, my cousin's husband died this past January. I always liked him and his name was also "Ron."
I made a nice Find a Grave Memorial for him, out of my respect for him.
You know how you just connect with some people? I connected with him. He was a nice guy and even though I didn't know him that long or well, I felt sad when I read his obituary. He was 91 years old though, he had a good run. Like Bill had a good run at 95 and I'm having a good fun at 83 years old.
For years I've joked about not having that long to go but I'm not joking now. The numbers don't like. eighty-three years old is OLD.
I'm tired now. One more trip to Palm Springs but after that trip I'm just going to coast out here at home in Delaware. Maybe a few trips to visit Philadelphia where my eighty-eight year old good friend still lives. I have an eighty-two year old brother who lives in the family homestead in Pennsylvania but we're also estranged. He's a Trumper and blinded by his hatred of "fucking Democrats." I'm done with him. And I don't feel bad about it. He's been difficult his whole life. He's the only brother I've ever had physical fights with. My other younger brother, we never fought. He died a couple of years ago.
With so many of my friends and relatives dying I'm starting to feel like I'm on an island. But you know folks, it doesn't feel bad. It's just another adjustment in my life. This "journey" that has been quite a trip.
I've been meaning to write a blog post about all these scenarios from my life that have been replaying in my mind since Bill died. I've had a very interesting life but I do feel things are wrapping up now. I'm getting for forgetful and I am always tired.
Have a nice weekend everyone.
