MY MOTHER'S FAMILY

My mothers family was closer to us than my Dad's...We went to my Aunt Diddie's or my Aunt Ana's house every Sunday for dinner. We spent the day with them and returned home to get ready for the next weeks school and work. My mother had two sisters and no brothers, both married and both only with one child. My Aunt Diddie had a set of twins she lost at birth. My cousin, Jeri, was no doubt my closest cousin. She was a few years my senior. My Aunt Ana had a son, his name was John. She miscarried a boy early in a pregnancy after him. He was named after my grandfather, John Simpson, but we all call him Jack. We were a very small family, as families go. Every holiday was spent together..and we had so many wonderful gatherings..and swell times!!!...My uncles drank alot, one could say they were acoholics...most of my life, I don't really think they were sober any of the time....After work they stopped at the club and had a few and then the weekends were always...spent in the bottle!! My aunts were the real anchors of the families. Looking back now, I imagine their lives were very sad. They really never took many vacations, they just survived as most families did back in the 40's and 50's....Family was everything, they helped one another. They supported one another...When anyone was in need someone in the family stepped in...My family was very close, I can see now ...I never remember any arguments about anything, or anybody. My grandmother, we called Maw..was most memorable...She was such a joy, she was a little short stout women with a gigantic laugh...Whe she laughed outloud, you could hear it from the corners of the room...She enjoyed life. She wore a corset that tied her in and when I hugged her she was very hard...I remember the nights I stayed over, Maw lived with my Aunt Diddie. Even on nights I didn't stay over, I would ask my Aunt Diddie, if I could get a bath in her bathtub...Living in a trailer park, with no bathroom...made this a real special treat for me...I spend hours soaking until my fingers were wrinkled..singing and enjoying the wonderful feeling of a tub bath. Maw had a bedroom with a double bed. She had a picture of a night sky and a howling wolf ...on her wall. I think about how strange that was, now..But anyway, she had long, white, thin hair. She would brush it every night. It reached down to the middle of her back...and every night she would put one long pigtail down the side and crawl into bed..in the morning she brushed it out and wound it into a long twist and wound it around into a sort of bun...stuck pins in it ...and she was ready to meet the day. She had a clock that glowed in the dark..and ticked very loudly. She called it Big Ben...She was sweet and kind, I never remember her hugging me or telling me she loved me...It was just a known fact that she did, I guess!! We were Irish-English, and from what I understand the English are not a very warm or loving bunch!! But if love was measured in things...other than hugs and kisses...we had alot of it around!!! I loved my Maw..she was so much fun!! She made even the hardest tasks fun!!..Her heart held all that a heart could hold...and I miss her even now. When she was up in years...we had to put her in Torrence State Hospital..she became mentally very unstable..but her humor never escaped her...One day we all went to visit her and and I asked her..."Maw, do you know who I am?" and she answered, "Well if you don't know who you are, how do you expect me to...!!!" Enough said, she was MY MAW!! I pray that God would love her the way I did, and would accept her, for He alone knew what was in her heart!!!