Marigolds and Family

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.