Becky Bear

If there's any good thing about social media, it is that it puts us back in touch with those we love but with whom we've lost contact.  This past year, I found my baby sister, handfuls of childhood friends, and my oldest sister's children.  That's quite a year!  It's totally worth some of the status updates I'd rather not see from friends I like except when they're on facebook to find my family again and have the opportunity to invite them to Thanksgiving at my home.  My place is small, and my hope is that the place will be bursting at the seams with grandchildren, grand nephews and nieces!  


I want to continue my tradition of making bacon wrapped turkey stuffed with an orange and cornbread dressing. I want to start a new tradition of family reunions and memories to come.  I've asked and invited everyone and even if  'the kids' aren't able to make it, I know I can count on my sisters, Karen and Kelli, to be here and that we will laugh the day away.  Karen will play songs on the piano out of the big green songbook and I'll strum a few tunes on my ukulele, Kelli and I will sing harmony while Jessica sings melody, and we will have a wonderful day, my three sisters and nieces. 


In our minds and in our hearts, of course, will be our parents, Marshall and Pearl, who left this life over a decade ago, as well as my oldest sister -- who would complete my sister triumvirate --  Becky, who died in 1991.  It has been way too long since I've seen Becky's boys, Jeff, Jason and Jeremy, and now they have grown up and recently, sadly, lost their father too, so I know this Season will be tough for them and I just want to hug them.  I love all my family, I love those boys as I love my son and his wife and grandchildren, of course, and I want to have them near me during the Holidays.  Is that so wrong?  lol


At any way, my sister Becky was a model, a gorgeous lady who was a civic trailblazer in Northern Kentucky, much in the pattern of our mother.  Becky devoted her life to children with learning disabilities and promoting awareness of domestic violence.  She was a tireless worker for any good cause, and damn it, she's gone too soon, and I miss her.  


Today, Becky's son, Jason posted the photo you see above, taken during Becky's modeling days.  I have never seen this photo before, so I was happy to pinch and post it here.  She was gorgeous. She was a great role model.  She was fabulous, and I love the memory of her laugh, her sparkling conversation, and her intelligence, which was unmatched in anyone I've ever known.  


Happy Holidays, everyone, I hope your house is bursting at the seams, too ;-)
peace, y'all,
Kimmy