Puppy Scooping and Step Children

There is an old standard which states "girls and kittens and boys and puppies". As you can see, this little girl doesn't know the rule. She may have scooped up all the puppies she could hold and by the expression on his face, the little boy doesn't seem to know just what happened, nor does he seem to understand that he could be a take-what-is-left-sort-of-puppy-scooper if he just turned around.

Shirley, (12/1951) is the daughter of Lloyd and Ella Rye Anderson. Bruce, (12/1952) is the child of Walter and Alice Rye Steinhauer. The children are first cousins.

To confuse you even more, Walter and Ella married after Lloyd, (DOD 10/1967) and Alice, (DOD 6/1984) on January 11, 1986 at the Covenant Church in Thief River Falls, MN. Now, all the cousins are step sisters and brothers.

Old Trunks merged with a widow who has children. Between the two of us, there are four men and one woman. I heard the word STEP often during Christmas. My own son explained to me that he referred to Thomas as his step dad because referring to him as 'my mom's husband' gave it a spirit of dislike; which was not so. Ryen truly likes and respects Tom.

In the interest of another opinion, Old Trunks talked with a lady yesterday who is married to a lawyer. My Sweet Thomas and his son where shopping in her store at Christmas time. They bought an angel for me. When I opened the package, I was so touched by it; Tom leaned over and said, "There are two more in different sizes". I went to the store yesterday and that is how I met her. She remembered the man in the beard and that his wife collected angels. She observed he was looking for something out of the ordinary.

As we talked I told her the story of our beginning. And how, now, there were two of us and five children between us scattered throughout the United States.

She stated her husband, the lawyer, saw a lot of cases of children not wishing their parents to remarry. She stated there were a lot of later marriages between people like Tom and I that had known each other in innocent times. She wondered why children insisted on interfering with new light and hope for their parents. Because of her husband's profession, she knew the answer. It was more about dollars and no cents, (sense).

Walt and Ella have been married 22 years this month. By today's standards, that is long term. When they were to be married, I asked Ella about it. And do you know what she answered? Because I am in love with him.

Perhaps big families who live in the same area feel as if they need to protect their parent as if the marriage is very new. For us, it appears we are honored by all our children. The union between us gave us an opportunity to fall into one another. Although Walt, Ella, Tom, and myself are old and old, old with wrinkles, balding heads, and a variety of maladies, we still dance in spirit in our top hat and tails and long shimmering gowns despite step children wars and scooping up the puppies.

Let there be love.

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