Will the last one to leave, please turn out the lights

Last week I went to the Family Night for my mother's childhood best friend and cousin. Mom often told us of the fun she and Hazel had together as children and teenagers. Hazel is the one on the left, Mom is on the right. Their families were close. My grandmother (Florence) and her sister (Lizzie) and their friend, Lillian, married three of the Clem brothers - William, Henry and Warren. That made my mother and her brothers and sisters and Aunt Lizzie's children double cousins. Aunt Lillie and Aunt Lizzie lived together in a big house on 6th Street.

I don't really remember Aunt Lillie's children, Hazel and Bernard. They were adults by the time I came along. Since they were my mother's 1st cousins, they were my 1st cousins, one generation removed. Hazel had no children, but Bernard had two - Warren and BK, Jr. I don't ever recall meeting them. I remember going with Mama and Mom to see Hazel a few times, but - hey! I was just a kid. There were no cousins to play with, so I just sat there.

One by one, the old folks died. Whatever connections we had with them were lost. We didn't have those cool picnics at Elizabeth Furnace anymore. When they did have reunions with each other, I wasn't invited. Well, to be fair, none of the 3rd and 4th generations were invited.

When I saw in the paper that Hazel had died, I decided that I would go to the family night and try to reconnect with my 2nd and/or 3rd cousins. I had two pictures of Mom and Hazel that I had planned on giving to either BK or Warren, the only family she had left. When I arrived, I was the only one there. BK and his wife came in about 20 minutes later. They were the only family planning on being there.

I had a nice chat with him and I gave him the pictures. I didn't know that he lives about 5 miles from me. I hope to get together with him later this summer to try to glean some family history and maybe to see any photos Hazel may have left.

The sad part of all this is that she was the last of the cousins. When the others died, there were cousins, nieces and nephews, brothers and sisters, and maybe a few aunts and uncles to mourn their passing.

For Hazel, there was only a nephew and his wife and me.