MY COUSIN JANE

A few days ago I went to visit my 93 year old aunt Edna who is in Rehab after having fallen and broken her hip. She was looking very chipper, considering what she has been through, and I have no doubt that she will soon be back home again living in the same house she has lived in for over 50 years. I had a very nice visit with my cousin Jane, her daughter, and we had fun getting caught up with each other.

Jane is one of the 47 first cousins I have on my father’s side of the family, but she’s the only one who grew up with us in the same town. Her father and mine were brothers who were very close, and consequently, even though I was eight years older than Jane, we were close growing up. I can’t say enough good things about her now; however, there were times during our growing up years when we all wondered how she would turn out.

As Edna remarked the other day during my visit, my uncle Gene gave Jane everything she wanted when she wanted it. All little boys and girls want and ask for a horse when they are little, and of course, never get one. Jane asked, however, and got one. I can’t remember which came first, the house across from the horse or the other way around, but they eventually ended up buying a house across the street from a pasture that the horse stayed in. And Jane adored that horse.

Jane has always loved being a part of such a large family as ours is and she did what my sisters and I only talked about doing. She went to Ole Miss in the same town where many of our relatives lived. I am envious of the time she was able to spend with them during her college years. She met her husband Preston there and they both became pharmacists and moved back to Nashville.

So over the years we have had many happy times together, but we had one experience that surprised both of us. Oddly enough, the first year I taught at FRA, her youngest son Jim was one of my students. He was a fine boy, president of the student body, and a very likeable young man. He did tend to act up, occasionally, as most eighth grade boys do, and one day I was forced to give him a detention slip. He promptly took it home and hung it on his wall in his room. That was an interesting year having a cousin in my classroom.

(Ironically enough, I was able to have the very same thing happen with a cousin on the other side of the family a few years later. That will have to be another day’s blog.)

Every summer Jane and Preston play host to the whole Nashville family at their swim and tennis club for our annual reunion. Anywhere from 30-50 of us gather to greet everyone and catch up on the news of each family. Members from both sides of my family attend and we have a wonderful time. Moreover, we are very grateful to Jane and Preston for their hospitality.

Theirs is a very close family. Edna still lives in the house they moved into so many years ago, and Jane’s oldest, Trisha, lives there with her. Actually, Trisha and Roderick, her husband, bought the house from her and added a nice suite out the back for Edna. There are four children now and I’m sure that is a lively house when they are all at home. But Edna is in very good hands.

I am glad that I have a cousin as thoughtful and family-oriented as Jane is. We have been close over the years (she was in our wedding) and I really appreciate our friendship and family connection now more than ever.