family reunited after 60 years

My mom finally met her two half-sisters this week. It has been an amazing time for our family. Back in 1932 when my Mom was born, my grandfather left to find work. He left my grandmother behind because she was pregnant. For whatever his reasons were and for whatever the circumstances were, he never sent for my grandmother and mom. Maybe he was not ready for a family. Maybe he thought once he left that he could not come back. No one really knows. My grandmother Sally never said a bad word about him and I never heard my Greatgrannie Russell say anything bad either. After 5 years he divorced my grandmother and remarried and started another family. Thing like that happened in those times. It happened on my Dads side also. I've just never been able to find where my great grandfather Tedford went.

Mom met her father for the first time when she was about 15. They didn't hit it off at all and Mom never tried to see him again. She knew she had two younger sisters but they didn't meet until now. Their father, my grandfather died in April of 2005. There is no longer a barrier to them having a relationship. It is really neat to see how 3 women, all raised in different circumstances have so many similarities. They sound alike, they all have the tenacity of a pitbull! And they are all opinionated. They arrived on Wednesday for Thanksgiving. It has taken months and weeks of planning to get them together under one roof. I have seen laughter and tears and squealing and jumping up and down. My mom was in a hard jerk she was so nervous. But she has finally met her two paternal sisters and the meeting was good. Now she can add them to the family. When her other half-sister that she shares her mother with, comes home from overseas, it should make for an interesting homecoming.

I like my two new aunts. Talking with them about the branch of the family tree that I didn't know has explained a lot. I now know where the art talent comes from and the extreme love of learning. The features and the temperament; We all resemble very much.

There is a copy of an old photo in the display at the museum that our town is working to create. It is a photo of the log workers in 1929. They are standing and sitting on a huge log that is loaded on the old Lindsey wagon with the team of mules. My grandfather, their father, Marshall Gray, is perched up on that log. I can finally say that without upsetting my mother.

The water has gone on under that bridge and my mother and her sisters can now be a family even if it has been over 60 years in the making.