The Chairman has passed

He was unmatched in our family. A leader and a friend, an uncle, a father, a grandfather a great-grandfather, a husband and the final Bowen, Uncle Charles has gone on before us. We do not know what a day may bring forth.
Uncle will be sorely missed and let us not let go of the family spirit that he inspired in us. Karla, Aunt Jackie, Justin, ,Bea, and Dominick,and families, our prayers are with you!



Would someone please send me any pictures of the Bowen/Hanst family if they have it?

The Nascent of Me!

I simply cannot imagine Grandma Hanst going through the change of life, like I am. I heard a wonderful television doctor who put this season of life into perspective for me. It is a season of renewal and not death, although most of the time it feels like a death since all of my purposes are changing. Today I am meditating on the changes in my wifing.
Becoming a new wife to my husband after 23 and a half years is very difficult, but I believe that, by the grace of God, I can learn to care for him in this latter season with the new love that God has placed in my heart for him and let it show in my demeanor.
I want to look better, which means that I need to look up some of the makeup tips to renew my look so that my face doesn't look as saggy as it is and continue working on my pilates so that the rest of me doesn't look as saggy either.
I am tired of taking this love of my life for granted and intend to live in love with him to the best of my ability! God give me grace and strength!

The Care and Keeping of Pop

My Great Grandmother's legacy of love to her husband was that, she made herself available and beautiful for him when he came home from work and the children of 106 spoke fondly about the way she did it.
Evidently at 5 oclock she went into the shower and came out all made up and prepared the table and herself for him amidst all of the children and they all knew that she was Pop's wife! I hope that 100 years from now my great grands will know that I am, first, Ben's wife.
God help me!

I Knit Therefore I Am

What a nice time I had with some ladies, recently knitting and, or relearning to knit. For a while it seemed to me like the vestages of the old days of maternity and such. I've got a new enjoyment for this old craft and it has been helping me with my impatience. I have something to do in waiting times. NC is slower and kinder and it is easy to jump from thing to thing and become very irritated at the pace of things. The knitting keeps me from griping and nagging. Actually, I haven't tried it instead of nagging yet, but I intend to..:) One day.

The Dish Water Test

I am so grateful to be in a new and big kitchen, that I keep envisioning Mu in her kitchen at 106. I don't have to do dishes now because I have a dishwasher, but in the old days Mu used to wash the dishes for the many, many people that went through 106 in one big sink. (You guys know how I hate the dishes)

Legend has it that when Margaret was dropped off, she was 8 months old and she had no strength in her back and that Mu cured her by sitting her in the dishwater.
I think Mu didn't have any other way of holding her up and that was their private time with eachother and that she was just as shocked when Margaret started sitting up herself as everybody. God works miracles with love and the dirty water test has come to signify the healing and loving things that we mommies do that although they are unorthodox and smelly and messy, God works His miracles through them. I hope Margaret is not embarrassed by this family secret being revealed..:)

Thanks For the Overwhelming participation, family!

I believe that I am making some headway with this. I recieved some very encouraging and challenging information from the family blogging community. We must invite the more scholarly in the family history, like the chairman to get on board.Until we have 100% family participation it will still be just a dream.

I want pictures of Grandma Hanst in my hands or on scanned in somewhere, before Easter, Ladies and Gentleman. That is the first treasure hunt. I will publish it I think it is very good to find out as much as we can while we still have uncle and aunties alive. So if you find out something about her that I don't know tell me and I will try to compile it and publish it.

Now that we have so much in common, lets blog on!

This is how WE DO IT! I got some great pics from A and I will post them when I learn how???

Showers

The older I get the more I think about Grandma Hanst. She started all of this family business. Aunt Roz used to call me her when she saw me following in the footsteps as we all have in one way or another.
Today, I remembered a day at the beach. At Sunken Meadow and we were having a wonderful time as little people. The family wasn't as hard to get together, because we all lived in NY. We could see a couple of sparks of lightening in the distance and Mu said we'd better go to the cars. I remember how mad I was that she had said that. She was the boss and we knew that we all had better get a move on. The clouds rushed us and we were all caught in the most awesome storm with buckets of water dumping on us and lightening thrashing about us as we scrambled to collect the real valuables (the old people and children) and go to the cars. Her Easter baskets were unforgettable and the way the Dodgers were always playing when we went to her house. Time stood still for us at her house and she seemed to fit us all in that little apt. of hers. I wish the older people in the family, like all the aunties would fill in the blanks about her for not just the cliches, the precious memories...