Oh, Those Glorious High Cheek Bones Live

Several months ago, I found a living, breathing first cousin of my mom's. This was a feat as the cousin is the only one of that generation to still be among us. Click here to read about Henrietta.

My mom's aunt died really young leaving a small child behind. Her husband took the small child out of Charleston and to his aunts' house where she was raised. He visited her often and took her back to Charleston every summer to see her mama's kin.

Well, I recently stumbled across her and so I did what every excited family seeker of genealogy would do. I called her.

At first, she was skeptic until I told her who I was. She spent the next hour on the phone with me telling stories about my grandparents, whom she loved dearly, and of her grandmother. She laughed out loud when I told her a story that my mom had told me.

I almost dropped the phone. Her laugh was the laugh of my mother. With tears in my eyes, I wanted to keep this delightful old cousin on the phone. After we hung up, I made copies of some pictures for her (including one of her grandmother) and sent them to her.

She called back and thanked me. She said the picture had captured the essence of her grandmother exactly.

Time passed. Today, the postman delivered a card to me from this cousin. Inside was a picture of her. Once again, I had to sit down in a hurry as the tears formed in my eyes.

For this delightful first cousin of my mom has her look. Yep, those wonderful high cheek bones and smile were there.

I miss my mom and have been spending a lot of time looking at a picture of her taken at Christmas time a couple of years before she died. I've been needing her, and today, I saw a little hint of her still alive in a picture.

I must go and call this cousin and hear my mom's laughter once again. What a wonderful kiss from heaven this was.