Shirttail Relations

I just returned from a funeral.

Perhaps that isn't the normal lead-in sentence for a humorous story, but then, most of you have never met my family. We don't "do" funerals like most families "do" funerals. While it is true that we shed our tears and grieve, we also laugh and tell funny stories about the deceased and each other. Since almost everyone in my family knows the Lord as their Savior we view a funeral as a celebration of our loved one's promotion. Laughter is generously mixed in with our grief, especially if our loved one has been blessed enough to experience a long, happy life.

Such was the case today. The loved one was a 95-year-old "teenager" who had more stories told about her by the family and the pastor who conducted the service than anyone I've heard about in a long, long time.

The deceased was not physically related to me. Okay, this is where things get a little complicated so feel free to either get a worksheet from Ancestry.com or try to keep up by drawing diagrams on scrap paper.

There were enough shirttail relatives at this funeral today that we probably could have made a conga line of gigantic proportions holding onto each other's shirttails if we'd had the time. And the deceased herself would have approved!

The dear lady who died was the grandma of my cousins - just not the grandma that we shared. But this grandma was good friends with both of my grandmas, including the one that the cousins and I shared. And because she was such a good friend of my grandmas I had been around this lady often in my youth.

These cousins are very dear to me. Well, all of my cousins are, but these didn't grow up with the rest of us. That's probably a good thing since it kept them from marrying within our circle of acquaintances. That's really funny, too, because the area where I was raised is near a large city. It's just that the little bedroom community where our parents were raised - and where I and the rest of the cousins were raised - is rather small. Since I am the family historian only I have any idea of how closely related everyone in the community really is. There wasn't any in-breeding, but it is a miracle to be able to say that. The automobile wasn't invented too soon.

Anyway, today I was at the funeral home for two reasons. First, I was there to pay my respects to a lady I've known my whole life. And second, I was there to visit with my aunt and the cousins that I don't get to see often. This aunt is my father's sister.

At the funeral home today were some of the cousins from my cousins' dad's side of the family (the other side of their family). During the conversations someone tried to introduce us .

"We already know each other" I said.

"How?" someone asked.

"We grew up together," was the reply. And as we were growing up we were aware of the fact that we shared cousins.

My cousin wanted to introduce me to her cousins' cousins from their other side of the family but they weren't there, unfortunately, but their parents were. Are you keeping up? I was to be introduced to my cousins' cousins' cousins. Not to worry. I already knew those people, too.

And as I mentioned, this cousin of mine is on my dad's side of the family. But as we were standing in the foyer at the funeral home the director walked up to my mom and asked her to step back about 5 feet. The reason? Mom's own cousin wanted to say, "Hi!" She was the lady upstairs on the second floor playing the organ.

Conga anyone?