National Siblings Day - April 10th

The past few days I've been seeing many posts about National Siblings Day. Honestly, I've never heard of it before these past 2 days, so I decided to look it up.

National Siblings day was recognized and brought to the US Congress' attention in 2005 by Hon. Carolyn B. Maloney from New York. According to the Congressional Record, it states:

I rise today to salute Siblings Day, a day 
to honor our brothers and sisters for the many ways in which they 
enhance our lives. This celebration gives us the opportunity to show 
our appreciation for our siblings, much like Mother's Day and Father's 
Day are celebrated. Siblings Day was founded by my constituent, Claudia 
Evart. Ms. Evart has worked tirelessly to promote the observance of 
Sibling's Day on April 10th.

 I thought this was a very interesting idea. I could see where it could merit people to want to remember and pay tributes to their siblings. I know my father would probably pay a tribute to his brother, John, who has passed away.

I also can see some of my maternal relatives would probably want to pay tributes to their siblings. I'm talking about Charles and Mary Gauquie. I'm not sure if they are even thought of, but I know, since

One of the pictures from Find a Grave of Mary's grave site marker.

I've "found" these two siblings of my grandfather, I think of them often. Charles was about 10 when he fell into one of the rivers on my great grandparents' farm and drowned. I'm not sure if they ever found him or if he has a burial with the rest of the family at St. Mary's. Apparently, after Charles died, no one ever spoke about him again. Then you have Mary. Mary contracted polio when she was about 9. It didn't kill her but it affected her brain apparently. She would never "grow" up. Instead she stayed at home helping her mother with the chores - until my great grandmother Annie died. Then her father shipped her off to hospital or asylum for her to be "taken care of". She only lasted about 6-9 months there and ended up dying. She was only 36 years old. She was brought "home" and buried with her other relatives at St. Mary's. I still do think of them.

Sign for St. Mary's where some of my maternal line are buried

Then I thought about my own siblings. Whenever, I think about my own the best way I could say it is "Think of World War 3 and its still pretty tame". My brother, he's the peacemaker in all of it. He tries to get along with everyone and keep everyone up where everyone is at. Then you have the bitch, as

A family photo of my siblings when they were younger.

she said she doesn't mind to be known as, named Jean. She's the second oldest and named after our grandmother. She fights with everyone. Our middle sister, Debbie, and her haven't spoken in well...its got to be over 30 years now. I was just a kid when they had a huge fight. Now, I think, the only one that's still speaking to Jean is Charlie, but then again, maybe not. Theresa, I think, talks to everyone or at least tries to. However, she lives so far away its difficult to contact everyone as she lives in the middle of the USA. Then you have me. I live on another continent, but I do try and keep in contact with everyone. Not that its easy, but I do try. I speak to everyone - when they answer the phone or get back to me - except Jean. In fact, there are a very few pictures off the older 4 siblings of mine. By the time I came along, there were no more sibling pictures taken at all. Now there's very little hope of another one ever being taken because of the wide divides (aka fighting) of the family unfortunately.

We've all had our good times and bad, but we are still family. With the genealogy work I do, I'm trying to put all the pieces back together again (think Humpty Dumpty) of the family. Its not easy, but I'm finding I'm slowly starting to put all of the pieces and building the links that have tried to be destroyed. One day, I am hoping to have a huge reunion, but who knows if it'll ever happen?