Motherhood Part Two

“When one door closes, another opens…”



Motherhood Part 2


My next phase close to motherhood came when I got married a year later. I married into a family. I married Barry, who was 9 years older than me and the youngest of 4 children. He had 2 older brothers and one sister who were all married with children. Barry made me an aunt on the day we married, and I became the 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, picked up 4 of the grandkids after school and brought them to the house until they could be picked up by their parents. Unable to work at that time I was home and helped out when they came over after school. I would make snacks, help with homework, play Old Maid and Bingo, and get to hear all about their day at school.

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 big athletes in their day and now their kids were too. During the fall, we would gather on Saturdays and watch the Tennessee Volunteers College football games. It was great! We would yell at the game and have a great time together.

Due to everyone's schedule, we didn't have a big Thanksgiving, so Christmas was going to be our very first big family holiday. Knowing how much the kids loved games we decided to get all of them a different board game. I can still remember all the fun we had playing games all Christmas day. Needless to say the games were a big hit. 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 #4” or “Dad of #4” 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 we were there supporting the kids just as much as the parents. Everyone knew I was just 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 “Aunt of #4.” 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 have been able to be a “mother,” but being an aunt was very close to motherhood as you filled in every once in a while, 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