My cousin Randall died this last week and his funeral was on
Friday. While I was unable to attend the
funeral, it did not keep me from thinking of him. Randall was 12 years older than me. Most of my early memories are from the annual
Labor Day campout the family used to have.
We would have it at the Lechner family farm north of Harper. I remember one campout that we attended. Most of my cousins had BB guns, but I did
not. Randall came to the rescue. He and his girlfriend took me into town where
we went to the family house and he came back out with a Daisy BB gun. It was mine.
I still have it. Another memory
from the family campouts was the year Randall had a little too much to drink
and he drove a tractor into one of Uncle Lindy’s pickups. Randall had several hip replacements over
the years. A few years ago he was
diagnosed with Leukemia. That disease
ultimately took his life.
Late Friday afternoon I was sitting on the back porch with
Hannah. She had stayed home sick from
school and was sitting in the afternoon sun.
I was picking dead blooms off a Marigold plant. I pulled the seeds out and asked her if she
knew what they were. She said they were seeds. I told her she was correct and let the breeze
blow them from my hand. That got me thinking
how a Marigold plant is like a family.
A plant grows, blooms, and then releases its seeds to
establish new plants. Follow my logic if
you can. Grandpa and Grandma Kahmeyer
was the plant. They met, their love grew
and it bloomed. From that union 10 kids
were born. Like the Marigold seeds they
scattered in the wind. While most of the
family put down roots in Kansas, some went to Indiana, Oklahoma, Nebraska and
other spots on the map. We even had
family overseas at times. The younger ‘seeds’ met the love of their life, that love
grew and bloomed. Now there are more
seeds being scattered to the wind. From
the first ‘plant’ there are 35 first cousins.
I won’t even try to count second and third cousins. Let’s just say the family is big.
Some of my cousins are closer than others. I am definitely closer to the ones that grew
up in Medicine Lodge. It doesn’t
matter how long it has been between visits, when you see certain ones you can
talk about anything. And you never know
when you will run into one. Yesterday,
Saturday, I was surprised by couple of those first cousins. Dave and Bill Wiske showed up on our
doorstep. They had been to Dodge City
for some reason and when they were headed back to Medicine Lodge they decided
to stop and see us. We had a short but
good visit. Hope they stop by again
sometime.
As the wind blows seeds around and they establish roots, so
does a family. Everyone has the plant
where they came from and they call it home.
My home was in Medicine Lodge.
While I consider Ford my home now, Medicine Lodge is still home. To my kids, Ford is home. Ultimately we all have a common home. Randall has went to that home. Rest in peace, Cuz.
