Aunt Karen’s Dash

I have an Uncle and Aunt who are twins who were born two month after I was born.

Uncle Kenny and Aunt Karen although I never called them that.

They were twins but totally different in personality.

This photo in 1952 says it all.  Karen is crying, Kenny is wondering what she is bawling about and I am on my way out of the situation.

Karen on the left and me on the far right in 1954, the little girl in the middle her name was Connie also.

Kenny, Carey, Me with Deb, Karen

Vickie, Diane and Maxine

It must have been Diane’s birthday party.

All of us grew up together, we saw each other just about every Sunday because everyone gathered at my Grandparents on Sunday for dinner.

I got along just fine with Kenny.  Karen not so much, she was always getting someone in trouble and I was often punished because she was a Miss Tattletail.

I was usually off with Kenny and my baby brother doing “stuff”…you know…jumping from hummock to hummock in the swamp, poking long sticks down into the oozey bog where the ground would move, playing games with sticks and balls, Anty I Over, Hide and Seek.  We could play outside all afternoon and be entertained until it was time to eat dinner or go home. Karen was mostly in the house playing with dolls.

Both Kenny and Karen were attendants when Far Guy and I got married.

Karen got married in 1970, she had two maybe three kids and while those children were little she divorced her husband. 

The last time I saw her was in May of 2004.  It was at her sister’s funeral visitation (Marion).  I expressed my sympathy and inquired about her children.  We really never had much in common.

My Mother had four sisters.

Toots, Karen, Grandma, Skip, Madeline (My Mom) and Marion in 1977.  This photo was taken at my Grandparents 50th Wedding Anniversary.

My Aunt Karen died on May 24 2017, she was living in a Nursing Facility in Florida near her daughter.  She was 65 years old.

Now my Mom has no living sisters.  She does have two brothers still alive.  Once there were twelve children and only three remain.

I know that Karen was Confirmed in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod because I was there.  I suspect that she eventually grew up a bit.  She had a hard life being a single mother. My Mother always tried to make her feel special.

 

I should know more about her dash, but I don’t.  Sometimes it is really hard to put childhood conflicts behind you. We co existed on Sundays because we had to “get along” growing up. I did not go out of my way to learn more about her once we reached adulthood.

I hope she had a good life and enjoyed her children and grandchildren.