Family Connections

Sunday, Matt and his family and I went to the Levi Latty reunion in Tahlequah. It was a neat day of a whole lot of visiting, a whole lot of food,  games and prizes, and remembrances. I think of those family reunions as connections, a bridge between the past and the present or maybe even the future; there were many children and babies present and, to me, children are a vote of confidence in the future.

Cousin Rex Cochran, descendant of Georgia Latty Cochran, was in charge of this year’s reunion. Thanks, Rex. My cousin Jerry Latty sang a song especially for cousin Doyle Green; lots of winners chose prizes in the Bingo game; prizes were given for guessing the correct number of pieces of candy in a jar, and people went home happy with their choices at the silent auction. Before all this happened, though, we loaded our plates with fried chicken, vegetables, fresh fruit, and an assortment of desserts.

I’m very glad that some of the younger members of the family are interested in family history. While we ate, we reminisced about Ma and Pappy Latty (Levi and Edna). So, in a way, our ancestors were with us, at least in our memories. We missed the ones who have already gone on to Heaven. Although they weren’t at the reunion in person, they were certainly in our hearts and minds. In honor of our veterans in the family, Rex gave each one a small American flag.

Dear cousin Carolyn Ann told us a spooky story she had heard as a child. It was enough to whet Richard’s and my interest and set us to wondering about things that no one can explain. And I gave out a few of the first Etta Bend books that I had on hand. I would like for everyone to have a copy of that book because they are first-hand accounts of life at Etta Bend as my mom lived it in the early 1900s. Ben and Tep Willis, Levi and Edna Latty – they are the ones who started the whole thing and we at the reunion were their descendants. I wonder what they would have thought, had they been able to see us yesterday.

Rex was gracious enough to hand me the microphone and I up-dated the group on the progress of Barbara’s and my three cozy mysteries. I told them that The Cemetery Club and Grave Shift will be out in the fall, newly-formatted, edited, and new cover pictures. And, the brand-new, never-before-published Best Left Buried will come out at the same time. One of the many good things about a family is that they are a built-in fan club. I’m grateful.

So, today, the descendants of Ma and Pappy, Alice, Susie, Georgia, and Henry, are back at our lives, scattered throughout several states and another country or two, working, playing, growing, learning. We carry with us a reverence for the past and a hope for the future. Yesterday, we connected with Etta Bend. Our lives today are quite a bit different from the lives of our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. But, without them, we wouldn’t be here.  Our memories of our family and the things they have taught us will be with us always.