Family Balances Life

Great-Grandma Jean — I was lucky enough to have met and get to know my great grandmother. I knew her only as an older person. I loved her and she was wonderful to talk to. She knew so much poetry. She would recite an entire poem by heart. I forgot to mention she herself was a published poet. I have to say she absolutely influenced me so much on my poetry writing. I will always remember her telling me to stop repeating myself in my writing. She gave me great feedback. We had a celebration of life for her recently. I was so amazed how she was so different as a younger person. My grandfather and dad and other relatives spoke and told stories about her that seemed like almost a different person because the person I knew couldn’t walk far or see well. I was so happy to learn about her earlier life. My dad has a much different perspective on her, but he really enjoyed speaking with her like I did.

I saw many relatives that I had not seen in a while. I love my family and I think hearing all the stories about the past made me want to spend more time with family in the present. Time isn’t stopping and "we’ll get together soon" sometimes keeps getting pushed further away. I hope to have a good relationship with all my relatives. Family is very special. I have a very wonderful, wacky, loving, unique, fun, and awesome group of family on all sides. I love them all and I hope we will always stay connected.

I feel like aging is an unavoidable part of life and I think it changes us. So I guess unless you know a person throughout their entire life you only know a little bit about that person. I love hearing stories about people I am related to, past and present. I love learning about people I love. We are all influenced by genetics and share similarities and it’s cool to discover deeper connections.

I’m so very happy my great-grandmother had a long, awesome life. I am proud to be a Mallinson, Harvey and all the family branches before them. I hope someday to get to see the places my ancestors came from and hear more stories about relatives. Someday I will pass on their stories. It’s important to not forget the wonderful people who were the reasons I exist today.