This is a picture of Gwendolyn Maybelle Stimpson Monk Cretinon c. 1942. I think she was (and is) a pretty lady. My mom died in 1997, after being brain dead for 7 years. My stepfather, Raymond Emile Cretinon, couldn't let her go because she had responses and her eyes moved so he thought she might wake up. It was a very tough time for my dad, Ray. His nickname was Biddy because he worked on his father & mother's farm and worked with the hens. He was the farthest from a hen you could ever see. Smile. Anyway, my mom used to work at Barbour-Welt, I believe, when this picture was taken. She was raised in a family of 13 children and she told stories of how each girl had one dress and they exchanged them daily so they could wear something different. My mother had 3 brothers: Orrin, the oldest; Buddy, the middle son, and Earl, the youngest son. They have all passed away now. My uncle Orrin was kind of stand-offish and I really didn't know him. He married Gertrude and they had two children; Roger and Melissa. They at one point shared an apartment building with my Grandmother and Grandfather Stimpson...this was when my Aunt Carolyn was still young because I remember visiting them and seeing my Aunt Carolyn (the youngest child--who had a twin sister who died at a very young age...Marilyn) going off on dates with 4-wheeled white roller skates on her shoulder and wearing roller skating skirts. This was in Brockton MA. Anyway, My Uncle Buddy married Beatrice and they had no children. However, Uncle Buddy and Aunt Bea "took in" the nephews and nieces at different periods of time,usually for the summer. My cousin, Jeannie, (daughter of Muriel Stimpson Simanski) and my sister, Judy, and I. We got to have bbqs and go to Cape Cod (Scusset Pier) to fish and beach. My Uncle Buddy was great. He talked to me (not at me or down to me) and taught me lots of things about business and words. I loved him a lot. Aunt Bea was rather strict and impatient but a very nice lady. They always had a dog--a miniature black collie, I believe it was. And the dog was very spoiled and their "baby." And I was afraid of dogs....you figure that one out...Uncle Earl married Gloria and they had two children; Douglas and Donna. We spent a lot of time at Auntie Gloria and Uncle Earl's place for bbqs and playing. My mother played cards with my Auntie Gloria. She was one of my all-time favorite people and very honest and outspoken. I loved it!! Auntie Gloria and Uncle Earl divorced later and Uncle Earl remarried Joanie. Auntie Gloria remarried Carl Clark. The family seemed to split and hasn't been the same since.
That is about it for the uncles in my mother's family. I will write about the aunts another time.
Harry is off playing Bocce and I am going to spend the day working on projects as soon as I get off the computer.
My son, Shawn, sent me an email in response to one I had sent out to everyone in my family regarding a prayer from Billy Graham. It was a wonderful, Common Sense prayer. Shawn reacted very strongly to it and told me that he will from now on delete any emails from me and he doesn't want to hear from me. I am sad about that but I am also tired of the excessive reactions he has to anything I send him. He said that I said that mothers are always right. I said that in jest and he has taken it angrily and in a way I didn't mean it. It is as if no one's sense of humor is valid except his. I am so sorry that Shawn is so angry and so alone. He doesn't want anything to do with anyone in our family and my heart hurts that he has chosen this route. I pray truly that he matures someday soon and lets all of his anger about the past go. We have to look at our past and INTEGRATE it into the person we are becoming. I have done that and I pray so much that he will be able to do that and not waste time. I truly don't want to die without a clear path of communications between us. But I also truly don't want to spend my life trying to figure out how to help him. He has to do something himself if he ever wants to be happy and fulfilled. Life is important and Shawn's life is important. Shawn says I don't know him. Well, get off yourself, Shawn, and let me know Who You Are!! I am waiting.
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