Moments with Marilyn

Growing up an only child, my cousins were very important to me.  I looked up to my older cousins as they led the way to high school and into adulthood. I watched them become parents and I loved their children and now their grandchildren. I have two cousins who were in my grade at school and it has been wonderful to travel through life with them. My younger cousins added a new bit of fun to our family! 

 My Boyle cousins live in Utah and it was their influence that led me to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  For that I will be eternally grateful, as I am eternally grateful for each member of my extended family.  I have been blessed with so many 'cousins' that almost seem like siblings.

Last week my cousin Doug Boyle died of a brain tumor just about a month after his diagnosis.  I went to Utah this weekend to celebrate Doug's life with the family.  All his children spoke at his funeral and one definite theme was how much fun Doug was, what a sense of humor he had, and what a joy he was to be around. He saw the positive in everyone and in every situation.  That was certainly true on our 2011 trip to Israel.

 

As we walked around the ruins of the temple, Doug just couldn't resist doing a little 'money changing' in the area of the ancient money changers!

I will miss Doug.  Even though we didn't see each other as often as I would have liked, every time we were together it was easy to just pick up our relationship.  Loosing a cousin is hard.  Somehow it seems normal to loose parents and aunts and uncles but a cousin is a part of my generation!  The reality that now WE are the older generation hit me.

From Traveling with Pomgranates: A Mother and Daugher Journey to the Sacred Places of Greece, Turkey and France  "And why, I asked myself, had I begun to think for the first time about my own mortality?"