Pam Brown
My heart goes out to all of you in your time of sorrow. Everyone has his own way of dealing with such a final loss. Seems we are all feeling the challenge of living in these strange times. I think I am a bit better to cope with it in part because of the lessons I learned one summer at the end of the 1950s from both of my cousins, Johnny and Jimmy.
They let me tag along as we spent the days outside with their buddies from dawn to dusk running, jumping and playing. They taught me how to play stick ball in the alley behind their house, climb fences, and jump from the roof of one garage to the next. They made me a tomboy. They also taught me how to fight. Johnny would call me a crybaby but by the end of that summer I had learned to stand up for myself. Still a very useful lesson today. I feel blessed to have had the benefit of their protective guidance and will always remember my cousin Johnny with fondness and love.
Pam Brown