Because of the kindness of the person who set me up the family tree that they did on Ancestry, I’ve… come to the conclusion that the half-aunts (I’m fairly certain that they are my half-aunts now based on their ages, even though Ancestry has both of them pegged as my first cousins) are sisters that my dad has. According to Ancestry, my mother only has one sister, and she might not even be alive any more. So far, neither of these elusive half-aunts have responded to me on Ancestry. I knew going into this that I might be the “hidden relative” to some people because of the holes present in my own family history, so I’m fine with some of the people that I reach out to on these sites, for whatever reason, choosing not to reach out to me.

Meanwhile, there are a few people who actually periodically wonder if I’ve “forgiven my mom yet”, as though one day I will magically do so… so I’d like to bring up the fact that I’ve actually gotten rid of the possessions of mine that she gave me, such as jewelry, if I haven’t already mentioned it here. I find this to be cathartic, and the act of doing so has brought me even more peace. And of course, none of the jewelry that she ever bought me was worth anything monetarily. But it brings me peace not to own anything that she ever bought me as a gift from this point forward, because that is one less reminder that I have of her around the house.

As time has passed, I’ve continued to forget more and more about her, which has been nothing but good.

What she looked like. What she looked like with hair. What she sounded like. Her presence here in my home.