My Family: My Mother's Side Of The Family

When I initially began this project, I figured it’d be pretty easy, perhaps even a little dull, because honestly I think my family is pretty amazing. The experiences I had growing up felt normal, but as I have gotten older, had more life experiences, and talked to others, I realize what I had was unique, special, and something I hope to replicate for my own posterity. I grew up in a small town, with both sides of my family; grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, all living within an 8-mile radius, most within 2 miles. My cousins and I attended the same schools, and the same ward. I was especially close to my mom’s side of the family. We spent the night at each other’s homes, and spent the majority of our summers together at my grandparent’s

My grandpa was a convert to the church, and my grandma’s side was inactive pioneer stock. The night before I was born, my grandparents were in a car accident, and my grandma died. This event started in motion events that I believe shaped how his posterity currently functions. He quickly remarried a woman who was not ready for a ready-made family. With four adult children, and 4 grandchildren, it was more of a family than she wanted, and they separated about a year later. My grandpa was still incredibly lonely, and although not divorced, he got engaged to another woman. This union was doomed from the beginning, when one of my aunts wrote to her mother’s cousin, and begged her to intervene. They hit it off well, they had been friends for years since Karen (the new wife) was Marjorie’s (the deceased wife) first

For as hard working and enterprising as my grandpa was, this man was equally lazy and content to sit and do nothing. He couldn’t keep a job because he felt he was smarter than everyone else. This irritated my grandpa who made it clear, my aunt and her children were welcome to come to family functions, but her husband was not. She came with the kids for a while, but as the kids got older, the influence their father had on them won out, and we do not have a relationship with her children, or her husband. We do visit with my aunt, and the lack of relationship her children have with her family makes her sad, and she has remarked, if she could do it over again, she would have insisted the children come and have relationships with the others. I honestly believe if my grandma had lived, my dad’s side of the family would be different. Sometimes it is the mother who is the glue to the family. It has been 37 yrs since my grandma died, and for a while we continued to have family gatherings, but after the situations with my two aunts got worse, the family became a little more distant. My grandfather passed away in 2003 from pancreatic cancer, and since then family gatherings have become non-existent. I would say over all there is a feeling of harmony, and we enjoy one another’s company, we just don’t get