Motherhood Part 2

"When one door closes, another opens..."

Motherhood Part 2


My next stage to motherhood came when I got married a year later to Barry in late fall, who was 9 years older than me. I married into a family. Barry was the youngest of 4 children. He was 9 years older than me. I married into a family. Barry not only made me his wife on the day we married, he also made me the proud aunt to 8 nieces and nephews.

When Barry and I got married we first lived with his Dad. Papa John, as he was called by the kids. He would pick up 4 of the grand kids after school and bring them to the house until they could be picked up. Unable to work at that time I would be home and helped out when they came over after school. I would help make snacks, help with homework, play Old Maid and get to hear all about their day at school. I loved every minute of it.

As I've mentioned in my profile, I am a sports fanatic and luckily for me I married into a very athletic and sports oriented family. All the brothers and their sister were star athletes in their day and now their kids were too. During the fall, we would gather on Saturdays to watch Tennessee Vols college football games. It was great! We would yell and cheer at the game and have such a great time together.

Due to everyone's schedules, we didn't have a big Thanksgiving, so Christmas was going to be our first big family holiday. Barry and I were so excited about our first Christmas together. As we were trying to decide what to get the kids for Christmas, we finally decided on board games. The games were a real hit. I can still remember all the fun we had, playing games all day Christmas. Barry kept his "cool uncle" title and I became the "cool Aunt Elizabeth." We loved those kids and were proud to do things with them every chance we got.

When spring came, as soon as Barry would get home from work, we were out the door and headed straight to the ball fields night after night. We watched softball games and baseball games all spring and summer. All the parents had these shirts with the team logo on the front and on the back they said "Mom of # _" or "Dad of # _" but they didn't have any for aunts or uncles. I found this really discriminating and made it known. I told them that it wasn't fair that there weren't shirts for the aunts and uncles that were there supporting the kids just as much as the parents. Everyone knew I was teasing, but to my great surprise, the very next year I was presented with a specially made shirt that looked just like the ones for the parents but mine said "Harrison Lady Titans " on front and on the back it said "Aunt of #12." I was absolutely thrilled! I still have that shirt to this day.

Being an aunt was so fulfilling. I have lots of tales I may share on later posts about being an aunt, but my main point is I might not be able to be a "mother," but as an aunt I sometimes had to fill in as one, which was very rewarding. I dedicate this post to my nieces and nephews, in no particular order: Ryan, Justin, Josh, Justis, Lauren, Lacey, D.J. and Chase.

Motherhood to be continued...

EJ