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St. Louis

I’ve been without internet access for the past five days. I think I’m now officially a junkie. Boy have I been craving a connection!!!! It’s so hard to be out of touch with all of you.

My mom and her sister (my aunt Phyllis) came up to Kansas City and picked me up on the way to St. Louis to see my great aunt (my grandmother Cockerill’s sister) Ched. We call her Ched, although I think her name is actually Mercedes.

We had a wonderful time. Aunt Ched is like the energizer bunny. I know I have chronic fatigue issues, but it’s still a little embarrassing when an 84-year-old woman is running circles around you! Ched had planned out something special to go and explore every day. Of course, I took as many photos as I could, although many were from the car window.

I so wish I’d brought something to record aunt Ched with and taken the opportunity to actually interview her. I was so busy trying to clear the time to be away that I just didn’t think that far ahead. Ched was full of stories about family in Puerto Rico, many of which I hadn’t ever heard from my grandmother. There’s a big age difference between them, so I guess they were close to different parts of the family.

My one-track HPS mind of course kept thinking of genetic family trees the whole time, and how much I’d like to reach out to distant third and fourth cousins in Puerto Rico (who have no idea who I am) to make sure they’re aware of HPS. What are the odds I have a distant cousin I don’t even know about in our HPS community? I’d say pretty good.

I also downloaded a ton of photos from my mother’s camera of her trip to the Canadian Rockies last summer, and her trip to France this spring. You know me – I’ll be annoying everyone with those too. I’m constantly trolling for great photos for my artwork file!
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