Remembering General Robert Brainard and others - Old Family Photo

 

The photo is fading. Here is a picture of me and my nuclear family with my mother (right), and some members of my husband's family. Robert Brainard (left standing in back), Josephine Horde Brainard (far left), and Tillie Robson (beside Josephine), and my mother Concepcion Cuenco Manguerra have moved on.

I loved my husband's family; and they loved me. I miss them. General Robert Brainard or Dad used to visit and he'd arrive before my husband got home from work. I'd get him a beer or coffee (when he gave up liquor) and he would update me on family gossip. When My husband got home, they would turn on the TV and watch sports. My husband never got the family "gossip" and I was the one who would relay the family tidbits to him.

Aunt Tillie was married to Uncle Gerry (Dad's maternal uncle). She was so sensible and fair. When she was in her 90s, she made her own funeral arrangements and talked to the pastor about what he should say about her. "Keep it short," she said.

She and Uncle Gerry did not have children, and her nieces took care of her when she needed help, handled her bills, took her to doctors, etc. When she passed away, my husband got a phone call from one of the nieces informing him that she had left money for the relatives of her husband. She taken half her money and allocated that to her husband's relatives. Amazing to me, given the number of family squabbles in the Philippines over inheritance.

My mother is worthy of a book, and so I will talk about her another time.

I'm remembering them with love and gratitude for all they have done for me and my nuclear family. May they rest in peace.

tags:  #familyremembrance