The Chosen Ones - Ancestors in 52 Weeks

  This year's challenge is 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks and is run by Amy Johnson Crow.

Information on the Topic

Week 34's theme is "Chosen Family." Family isn't always related by blood. Adoptions, step-children, foster children, and special friends of the family can be just as much "family" as those who share DNA. (I think I was 10 before I realized that my Uncle Bob and Aunt Mabel weren't actually related to us.) This is the week to highlight one of their stories.

This is an interesting topic as we've had a few people over the years which were "aunts" but they were more like great aunts. I found my husband's family did the same thing as my family with the great aunts and great uncles were just known as aunts and uncles. Therefore, I'm not going to use them in this sense but I can see where people do use them. 

Other people who were close to our family, but not actual blood family were few. 

Aunt Connie

Credit

Aunt Connie wasn't actually an aunt at all. She was a friend my mother somehow made and I'm not sure when, how or why. She lived in the same estate in Newburgh as we did when my parents were married. At that point Fleetwood was the main road and then looped up and around the tiny cul de sac where we lived. She lived towards the entry of the estate and lived towards the end of it. 

After my parents split, we visited her from time to time. In fact, one time we actually stayed downstairs where she was starting to make an apartment up and wanted us to rent from her. There were too many problems so we ended up moving out. However, we still visited her. 

In fact, I visited her back after I had married when we had some free time on our hands which was probably back around 2000 or so. However, she passed away in 2016. 

Ma Timberger

Credit: J. Fitzgerald

The other person who was like a part of the family was known as Ma Timberger. This is my ex brother in law's mother. 

We always had a good relationship with her. Like Connie, she was always in my life when I grew up. In fact, she helped me, and my mother, out in different ways over the years. In fact, it wasn't until I was in my mid teens I asked why she was simply known as Ma. It was because she was like everyone's mother so everyone just called her Ma even though her real name was Dot or Dorothy. I think when she worked at Shoprite she was only known there as Dot. 

Like Connie, she passed away as well. She died in 2009 after a long illness.