Yesterday afternoon, before the 50th class
reunion, Joe and I stopped in to see my Uncle Dick and Aunt Sue. We enjoyed
visiting with them. Uncle Dick is my dad’s baby brother and the last of the Karnes
generation still living. He will turn 82 in September and still gets around good.
Aunt Sue and he have been married over sixty years. When we go back for the
Hudkins family reunion in August we plan to quickly visit and pick up rose bush
clipping for bushes that have been in the Karnes family for more than fifty
years. We will see how they thrive in Minnesota.
We held a get together at the Independence State Dam from
11:00am until 3:00pm today. We were able to use shelter house one at the front
of the park. The weather turned out perfect. A breeze with temperatures that
were in the mid to high seventies. Two of my brothers, Kenny, and Todd, were
able to get to the park earlier than us and secured the shelter house.
Our very first visitors were two of our awesome Nagel cousins,
Mike and Rusty. We visited with them last year and Mike baked for us his famous
chocolate chip skillet cookie. Today he brought us a large Tupperware full of a
skillet cookie. Let us just say that if I lived closer to Mike, I would be parked
on his doorstep begging for strawberry rhubarb pie and cookies. Mike is retired
now and an avid cyclist. In June he rode over nine hundred miles. In the past
four weeks he averaged two hundred miles each week. Chatting with Rusty and Mike
always makes my heart happy. While Rusty is a bit quieter, they both are witty.
My niece, Megan and her mom, Carol, came to the mini reunion.
Megan is married to my sister Jeni’s oldest son, Mitchell (Mitch). Mitch was on
call for work so could not make it. Carol has become like family and might as
well be a Karnes! We always enjoy Megan’s visits.
Especially sweet was meeting TJ. He is the grandson of
Robert (Bob) Karnes, one of my dad’s older brothers. TJ is twenty-two and the
son of Robert’s youngest daughter, Penny. This was the first time we met TJ,
and he seems like a terrific young man. He knew nothing about the Karnes family
so came with an open heart and mind to learn what he could. He works for one of
the best employers in Defiance, John Manville (Uncle Dick and Uncle Paul both
worked for John Manville back in the day) and just bought a home. It was his
day off and he spent it visiting us. This touched my heart.
Aunt Rita and Uncle Paul had been married sixty-three years.
Paul died at the end of November of 2023. Aunt Rita stays busy helping with her
grandchildren. My visit today with Aunt Rita was the first sit-down visit since
1974. I am sure she was at my dad’s funeral in 1989 and my mom’s service in
2016. However, funerals in our family are rarely occasions to visit and
reminisce. I visited with Rita for forty minutes. Her daughters Holly and Ann,
Ann’s husband, and daughter, and three of Holly’s six children came today. Ann
and Holly have been friends with me on Facebook for the past few years, but
this is the first time I remember meeting them. They are at least 20 years
younger than me. I left Ohio when I was eighteen. I may have gone to a Karnes
family reunion once when they would have been toddlers. Aunt Rita and Andrew
(Holly’s son), a junior in high school this coming year, regaled me with his “mowing”
stories.
Uncle Paul had an industrial riding lawnmower. As Paul’s
health failed, Andrew took on the responsibility for mowing their large yard.
Once Andrew tipped the lawnmower into the pond; another time he scraped the
side of the barn and scratched up the siding when the mower threw up a rock. There
were more incidents shared but my brain heard a lot of new information today.
Holly’s daughters, Emma and Claire, and Ann’s daughter, Lilly,
are close in age. (I believe 5th, 6th, and 7th
grades). They genuinely enjoyed each other’s company. I ‘listened in’ for a bit
as they enthusiastically shared information with Ann. I am not sure I got the
gist of the conversation as I was more fascinated with their enthusiasm.
I was equally delighted to meet April. April is the daughter
of my cousin Linda who died in 2019. April remembers meeting me once in 2014
when I dropped by Linda’s house while visiting Ney, Ohio. At the time it had
been forty years since I saw Linda. It ended up being our one and only visit. I
felt bad as I was so focused on catching up with Linda that day that I do not remember
meeting April. April’s grandfather, Bob, was my dad’s older brother making TJ
and her first cousins (Linda and Penny were sisters). April and I have been
friends on Facebook for about two years and we have tried to meet up, but it
never worked out. Today was the day we finally connected face-to-face.
The rest of our guests today included Jacob, his wife Samantha,
and Isabel (Izzy). Jacob is the son of my brother Todd and his wife Cindy. Samantha
and Jacob became first time parents this past year with the adoption of Isabel finalized
at the end of March. We are happy for their family. Izzy enjoyed walking around
dangling in the air from her great-uncle Joe’s arm. Good thing he is so strong!
Todd and Cindy’s daughters Caity and Courtney dropped by for
a short visit – I managed to get hugs from them. Courtney’s eight-year-old,
Joss, was in a baseball tournament so they had just enough time to run over to
the park, visit for ten minutes, and get back for another game. Courtney’s
other three children, Tatum, Addy, and Lisel came along with mom and their Aunt
Caity.
Cindy was also able to make it for a quick visit. She has
been spending the past four days at the hospital with a client. The client is more
like a member of the family. I think she has been his major caretaker for over
12 years. He had a major heart attack this week and they did not think he would
make it past the first night. His condition has been upgraded to guarded and we
are all keeping him in our prayers.
I truly hope I did not miss anyone that came today. There were
twenty-eight people including Joe and me. I am grateful to my brother, Kenny,
for suggesting we get together at the Independence State Dam and invite other
Karnes family members. I appreciate my brother Todd for getting him and Kenny
to the park to hold the shelter house. My uncredible spouse, Joe Coehlo, once
again picked up supplies and food and helped to set everything up.
My heart is full!
I only took four photos, and they were inside the shelter house. I think you can still see the wonderful smiles!
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