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Your main extended family Challenge Memory is the first that pops into your head, but you can also do mini memories of more family. I decided to limit this to our elders generation as my list was already extensive before I got to the young'uns.
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One day I got to visit my aunt Anne in her office.
Until that day I had seen her as sort of a ditsy blonde (she could never find her keys). Petite Anne was self-deprecating; she always felt that her big sister Ellen was the artist in the family. However, Anne had a fabulous job when few women did.
Anne was the entire advertising department for a classy department store in Columbus. She wrote, illustrated, designed, and placed ads in the city’s newspapers. She was the first female officer of the Columbus Ad Council.
And while she did this, she raised two sons without a man in the house.
And, of course, she always dressed with elán.
Anne was worn down and struggling when she saw this Buddha and had to smile. She certainly couldn't afford it, but she bought it anyway. 
When Anne asked us what among her things we wanted to inherit,
I immediately thought of Buddha.
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Jane and I visited Anne's elder son Jerry in Washington DC. In that visit his wife asked what my mother was like and he said something warm and admiring. I don’t remember the words but I remember how good it made me feel. |
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 Anne's younger son Sam was famous for fascinating gifts. He made, and gave us, jewelry made from brachiopods and other fossils he found. |
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Rebekkah and Walter lived for a while in a farmhouse outside Zelienople. One day they set up a treasure hunt for us kids: each clue led us to a different place on the land. The treasure was ice cream sundaes.
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They had two daughters who lived with us in Ohio for a year when Rebekkah was in crisis. Here Molly and Beth are, in our front yard.
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My great Aunt Frances came every week to clean Grandpa Doctor’s house and do his laundry in the old wringer washing machine, hanging it out to dry. I remember one lunch she made, the most delicious potato pancakes. I have the recipe.
 I won’t try to include all her Ziegler sons and one daughter. We were closest to Bill and his wife Ruby (shown here with Aunt Frances), and their elder daughters Joyce and Susie Gay (her actual name).
I remember a party in their backyard when Ruby had her fourth daughter, delivered by Grandpa Dr. when he was 80 (his last delivery). Ruby had made cream-filled chocolate cupcakes. I have this recipe, too. |
Frances making apple butter with Grandma Hardie.
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My great-aunt Phoebe had an even more glamorous life than Anne; she was way before her time. She had a career, smoked, drank, lived in Miami in her youth (an exotic city when viewed from Columbus).
I remember learning that this dinosaur came from the original Journey to the Center of the Earth. Phoebe's husband Parker did the PR for the film.
When I knew her, Phoebe had retired from her job with the state. She lived in a bedroom in Grandma (her sister) and Pop's house, where she worked jigsaw puzzles and listened to The Lone Ranger on the radio with the companionship of Mr. Peepers, who was, as he often said, a pretty bird.
Susan and I are now the only people left who remember Phoebe. I have her china. |
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Mother’s cousin Sloan and his wife Clara Bess were essentially our uncle and aunt. I remember him playing Twister and powering through Michael’s fiancé. I remember Clara Bess dancing for us in a grass skirt. |
They had one son, Steve. I remember him yelling as Sloan carried him out to the car, “Help! I’m being kidnapped!"
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And then Mother’s cousin Jean had a passel of kids, mainly boys, in Hawaii. I was there one Christmas and got to experience round-the-table ping pong. Players form two long lines, taking turns to grab the paddle from one side of the table and hit the ball, then move to get ready to take the next shot from the other side. In the end the last players get quite a work-out.
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