Strong

I put together some of the techniques I’ve been learning and created a journal page dedicated to the women in my family. We’re a matriarchal bunch and it seems that right now I’m passing the crown to my oldest daughter as I let her take on more of the planning and logistics of family events. Having five children with spouses, significant others, kids and jobs, getting everyone together can be tricky. The five siblings all have their birthday’s in a two month slot so summer can be very family oriented. Right now she’s working on the boys’ birthdays. They are August 15 and 18 and it looks like we’re going to go to the pinball museum on the 20^th. The two older girls had a party at my oldest daughter’s house and their sister got us all to the zoo on one of the few nice days we’ve had this summer.

The women on my journal page are what I call my ansisters, those women who came before me in the family. I only put three on the page but there are several more for future art efforts. For me the strongest matriarch was my great grandmother, Kit Simms Horrell. She held the family together during the great depression working as a wet nurse, a practical nurse and helping other women with abortions when there was nowhere else safe to get them. She raised my mother as my grandmother had tuberculosis and died when my mother was 13. My mother and she had differences similar to those experienced by many mothers and daughters but they maintain unity in the family no matter what their differences.