March 1, 2023

Dear Pat,

Today, on your 65th birthday, we send you love, appreciation, reminiscences, and the promise that you will always live in our memories and in the stories we tell each other and all our descendants down through the ages. 
 
We long to hear your voice again, your joyful laughter, your sage remarks. We carry on your delight in family and ancestor stories and beautiful, crazy zoom videos, asking each other, "What delight would Pat want to bring to us now?" 
 
We miss you so much and look for signs that you're still here with us. Sometimes we think we find them. Thank you for bringing us together. 
 
You inspire us to watch out for each other more tenderly. We were blessed to have you with us. Your memory is a blessing for us now. 
 
We will always love you dearly,
 
All Of Us

**********************

The beautiful photo at the top of the blog is of beach roses, also known as saltspray roses, growing among the rocks in the Otter Cliffs in Acadia National Park, Maine, one of Pat's favorite places in the world. The photo was taken by Diana Robinson on June 28, 2022. She makes this photo available under the Creative Commons. No changes have been made to it. Thank you, Diana!

Happy 100th Birthday, Evelyn Laufer Taylor!

 

On Tuesday, January 18^th, Evelyn Laufer Taylor (wife of Bryant Taylor, son of Floyd, twin of Lloyd) turned 100 years young!

Our fearless Evelyn has been one of our most prolific blog story contributors over the years, and we are so lucky to have her keen eye and writing skills to keep our blog going with interesting stories and ideas.

For her 100^th birthday, two of her three children were with her, Pamela and Lance. Mitchell, who has lived in New Zealand for decades, celebrated with her in spirit.

Her daughter, Pam, tells me: “It was a month long celebration. There were two small family parties, a drive by birthday caravan and sing by her church family, phone calls, cards, flowers, food and a newspaper article - plus plenty of reminiscing. Fun times and humbling.”

We here on the Cousins Blog so wish you a very Happy 100^th, Evelyn!

 

 

A New Year, by Pat Kinsella Herdeg

 

                                  

Happy New Year, Happy 2022!!

We here at the Cousins Blog hope that your holidays have been filled with joy, with peace, with love. Some of us have had small gatherings, and some of us have had larger gatherings these past few weeks.

Glenn and I were lucky enough to have two celebrations of Christmas-- one in Maryland with our daughter and her new husband, and our youngest son in from Colorado, and one here in Acton with family, partly in person and partly on Zoom (we need to get Covid vaccines for the youngest among us!).

Stories of a larger Kinsella Clan gathering in Greece, NY included Mom/Grandma/ Great Grandma (GG) greeting everyone, with tales of dance offs between two year olds and a few of my brothers (hint, the two year old did not run out of steam!), laughter and music everywhere. So much fun to be treasured!

All of this brought back memories of Christmas’ of long ago. I personally do not remember these Christmas festivities at Grandma and Grandpa Taylor’s home in Waterloo, but here are some pictures to spark memories:

                                                Christmas, 1957

                                                                    Christmas, 1962

                                Mike Maney holding Tom Kinsella in chair in back row

                               Dave Lochner and Richard Maney on each side of the chair                             

    Next row: Sue Kinsella, Julie Lochner, Chuck Lochner                           

    Next Row: Tim Kinsella, Marylou Taylor, Jon Maney, Dan Kinsella, Kathy Taylor, Dan Maney

    Front Row: Pat Kinsella, Rick Lochner, Ann Taylor

Julie Lochner Riber remembers:

“We sure loved it when we were kids at Grandma and Grandpa Taylor's!  We could get away with all kinds of bad behavior and no one ever noticed!  It was so much fun.

We'd just head upstairs at Grandma's and monkey around in that big bedroom.  Then, of course, sliding down the banister was the next best thing.  I think it got kind of wobbly over the years from all the fannies, big and small.”

And, some pictures from some of the Kinsella Christmases over the years:

 

                                                                   1980, Christmas

                 Beth, Tom, Pat, Tim and Kristin, Dan, Rose, Sue, Jim and Fred, Chris

 

                                                                1974, Christmas

                  Sue, Beth, Tim behind album cover, Dan, Jim, Pat, Chris, Tom, Corky

So, whatever this New Year holds for us all, I am cherishing my memories from past years, and hoping to build new ones with all of you soon. Love to you all.