Mothers: The Keeper

In honor of the upcoming holiday I’m sharing another Mothers chapter! This one is about my Aunt Kate, Queen of the Ladies of Leisure, and the glue that binds us all. Her heart for family and forgiveness are unmatched, and we are so lucky to have her in our lives. She gave me Skip, my oldest cousin, and he and his lovely wife Darcy gave us two new cousins!

The women in my family are something special, and I hope you get to know them a but through these chapters in my book. Below is a snippet from Kate’s chapter, and I hope to share more with you soon!

Mothers: The Keeper

….Kate’s desire to help is a reflex, I would guess, that comes from her experiences as a single mother, knowing that parenthood is no cake walk. Her parents moved in with her to help raise Skip after the divorce, and when they grew older and needed more care, she was right there to help. Both of her parents died under her roof.

One of my clearest memories from my childhood involves my Aunt taking me aside and whispering in my ear, “if you ever feel upset and want to run away from home, you run away to Auntie Kate’s house”. My mother was bewildered, because, in her mind, I have never been upset (I had) and had never considered running away from home (actually, I’d already asked Grandma if she would take me in). Kate was on the front lines, in school every day watching young teens change into wilder, more adult kids, and she wanted to help. Mostly, I liked that the situation got my mom all flustered, but I never forgot it.

What Kate really wanted was for all the cousins to have “many layers of scaffolding”, and to gather support from everyone in the family. Her son is four years older than I am, and that kept her ahead of the parenting pack. She knew we would have days when we were mad at the world, so when we decided to pop the escape hatch, in her words, there would be someone on the other side to catch us….