Today would be my mother’s 84th birthday. She died in July of 2016 within weeks of my 60th birthday. It was fitting then that we spent several hours today with her baby sister, Janet, who just turned 78 years young.
Janet and her husband, Doug, live on 2 acres on the outskirts of Pelion, SC. The road is appropriately named Clay Hill. The road is paved red clay. They have woods on their property and it feels very private even with neighbors sharing a common driveway. Both Janet and Doug have experienced health challenges this past year, yet today seemed a good day for them and we appreciated the opportunity to visit with them.
The last time we had seen Janet and Doug was in July 2016 when they came up to Ohio for my mom’s funeral.
Their youngest child, Angela (Angel) came over to visit as well. Angel and I have talked on the phone and messaged each other over the years; however the last time we saw each other was in July 1992 when mom and I drove, with 5 month old Megan, to visit Janet and family. Janet and mom had flown to California in early March 1992 to see newborn Megan.
We had a lot to catch up on today. They treated us to lunch at a local Mexican restaurant that was quite popular. We enjoyed the treat and their company.
After a 5 hour visit we headed back to Columbia to have dinner at a Greek restaurant with their middle child -Kurt and his wife, April. Today was their 23rd wedding anniversary and they each had birthdays in April (20th and 23rd). I had last seen Kurt at our Grandmother’s funeral back in the late 1990’s. Today was the first time I had met April face-to-face; however we had communicated by email and messenger over the years. April is passionate about family genealogy and produced a bound book for the Hudkins family in 2016.
Kurt shared stories from his military days and it allowed us to get to know more about him. April and I got to talk a bit about the 2023 Hudkins’ family reunion in Ohio that is in the planning stages. Over the years she has helped with reunions by keeping current on family addresses and mailing postcard invitations. Another cousin, Denise had also taken on the lion’s share of the reunion arrangements over the years. I am here to tell you that it is a thankless job!
We visited with Kurt and April for about 3 hours and then headed out to Dick’s and bought a tent. We found that some campgrounds will not allow you to car camp so the tent will give us more access to campsites as we travel.
I am writing tonight’s blog at the laundromat - on my phone. Forgive me for any errors!
Tomorrow I plan to make more travel arrangements for May 15th to May 31st. It takes time to connect with the people we want to see, check out places we want to visit, and book accommodations. I appreciate people who make travel arrangements for others!
I did not think to get photos of Janet, Doug, and Angel. April took some selfies though so I am sharing them tonight.
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