Remembering Vonnie

It was regret and sadness that we awoke to the news today that Yvonne was gone – at a much-too-young age.

Mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, niece, and to many of us, cousin.

Here's a photo of the cousins (and a few of the older ones' spouses) on Christmas Day 1953 at Mommie Howell's (our grandmother) house. That's Vonnie, as we all called her, on the right, front row. She's holding one of her Christmas present, a majorette baton.

Such fond memories come flooding back of days when  we were a group of kids, playing together at our grandmother’s house. Cousins and sisters, all within an age range that we could play together without too much conflict.

She was the fairest of us all in those days – a pretty blonde, whose bubbly personality made her a job to be around.

As a teenager, she became really movie-star beautiful, bearing a striking resemblance to Cybil Shepherd. 

Time and individual life situations dispersed us and not all of us have stayed in touch.

But we’ll always have our memories of the good and innocent years of our youth, when all things seemed possible.

That's Vonnie on the left, spending the night with my sister. I am not sure of the year, but they appear to be about 11 or 12-years-old.

Goodbye, Vonnie, rest in peace.