We celebrated my Aunt Leslie’s life today. It’s been a while since I’m been to a funeral service, thankfully, and the emotions embedded and flowed all day. Watching my eldest cousin stand up and speak about her mom’s life was by far the hardest, but she did an amazing job.
The joy of all of it is hearing the stories — the full life my aunt led that I didn’t always get to see. And how it brings families together. My cousins from my mom’s side of the family were all here — just the six of us — and took our traditional cousins’ photo. We have a now famous (in our family) picture of us in Door County lined up by age (and height — they were the same thing back then) when we were kids in front of the cottage. We knew Leslie would’ve liked us to do it again so we did a both by age and by height photo (below) though the height differences aren’t nearly as dramatic anymore.
By Age, Youngest to Oldest:
By Height, Shortest to Tallest
We’ll be gathering for another celebration next summer in Door County, the place Leslie loved and will ultimately be buried. I’ll double as a family reunion of sorts — all of us together in place we love, that Leslie loved too.
With Love,
Natalie