Sue had this e-mail news from our cousin, Mike Madden:

"Hey, I need to catch you up on a few things. It's been a really hectic summer, unfortunately.

Mom has gone from an assisted living facility to a nursing home to an Alzheimer's unit in a month. As if that weren't bad enough, she broke her hip then broke her shoulder in the same week. Right now she is on heavy pain medication at Maranatha Village in Springfield.

I'll try to get more info to you soon. I'm overdue at a meeting."


For those of you who don't know our family, "Mom" here is Virginia Madden, widow of Curtis Madden, mother of Mike (who sent the e-mail), Brian, and Sean. Curtis was our mother's brother, so Virginia is our Aunt Virginia, someone who was so good to us when we were growing up that we all have wonderfully fond memories of her and Uncle Curt. One memory in particular stands out right now. When we were young town kids, Aunt Virginia and Uncle Curt would have us stay with them on their farm for a few days occasionally. Aunt Virginia's brother, Hunter, sometimes took us fishing in a farm pond where we always caught blue gill. Hunter was very handsome and awfully patient with Sue, Donald and me, teaching us how to use grasshoppers for bait and how to clean the fish. Once, Hunter took us frog gigging (I think it was called gigging). We caught lots of frogs. Aunt Virginia fried the frog legs for supper. The frog legs jumped around so much in the frying pan that none of us would eat them.

More context: Mother's siblings were Mildred, Curtis, and Kenneth--all now deceased. Aunt Virginia is the last one living of that group. Mildred had one daughter, Wanda Jean. Curtis had Mike, Brian, and Sean. Kenneth was father to Elaine, Kenneth Watt, and ? (the names escapes me at the moment. Help!) Brother Joe no doubt has all the history of this side of our family, and I know some of our generation are readers of this blog. Please weigh in to help capture this family genealogy and history.