Relatively Speaking

I had a chance to start re-reading memoirs by my Great Aunt Alvina, my grandmother's sister. Strange, how I had a chance to help take care of her at my mother's cousins' house when she was 92. She said very little at the time. She's speaking to me now, though; many years later, I am reading what her girlhood was like. You know, the quietest, frailest of us have a history and were once young and experiencing life. It was a wonderful "trip" into the past. More yet to read...
I mentioned reading my great aunt's account, only to discover that our next door neighbor of 30 years may, in fact, be related to me. I knew they were Swedish, so understood their affinity for having his coffee "just right" (he's passed, now) and never would skip his a.m. Java, even if a medical test required it. But it never occurred to me he may have been a relative. Another good reason for loving your neighbor; could be they're your family.☺️

It appears that my mom got her zany performing storytelling skills from my grandmother. I never would have even considered that, as my grandmother, when she stayed with us, was generally quiet and dignified. Here's my mom trying to appear dignified. On her nurses' training evaluation, it said, Dignified: Not very. There are also a few ancestral pictures to the side of her portrait.