Happy Mother’s Day to My Village
It’s Mother’s Day, but I always feel like I should wish a whole list of family a Happy Mother’s Day. There are few people in my family who didn’t have a hand in my raising.
Household One
I lived with my Mom, Dad, sister and brother until I was 8 (well, my older sister graduated high school and moved when I was 6 or so).
Household Two
Then Dad left and my brother and I were with Mom until he went to live with his dad in Florida. It was just Mom and me for another year or so until a weird set of circumstances caused Mom to get stuck up in Ohio and I moved in with Grandma Carr (who lived next door).
Household Three
I was 10 when I went to live with her. That was the summer I started spending every weekend with my Aunt, Uncle and Cousin Heather. That was the summer that Heather and I became sisters for all intents and purposes, whether she liked it or not. At some point that summer, my Aunt asked me which school I wanted to attend. I chose the school I had always attended, where all of my friends were. As it turned out, my Dad decided I should live with him, my stepmother and my baby sister Stephanie.
Household Four
My stepmother was pregnant with my other baby sister, Eva and Stephanie was a little over a year old. I loved having a little sister around, she was so much fun! That lasted about 6 weeks (I know this because it was the only 6 weeks I went to a school other than the one I’d always attended), and right after Grandpa died, my stepmother asked Dad and me to leave.
Household Five
So, I moved back in with Grandma. We got back into the routine of me spending the weekends with my Aunt, Uncle and Heather, a routine that lasted well into high school.
Household Six
When Grandma got remarried when I was in 10th grade, she started going out on the oil wells with her husband, so first my great Aunt Mary Jane stayed with me during the week, and then when Aunt Sunny moved back to Texas for a little while, she lived with me.
It took a village – or at least a lot of family – to raise me. I love that I had half my childhood with my Mom and half with Grandma. It was an arrangement that made me who I am today. So, Happy Mother’s Day to the village of family who made me who I am! I love you guys!