Every summer the descendants of my maternal Great-Grandparents {Clarence Joshua and Rose Ellen Hepworth} hold a family reunion. Clarence and Rose had 10 children--including 2 sets of twins--one of which is my grandfather! Of those 10 kids, most of them also had large families as well, meaning that Clarence and Rose have A LOT of direct descendants. I've never attempted to count them up myself, but I hear that it's over 1000 these days.
To keep the family reunion running smoothly for so many years, they take turns rotating through the descendants of each one of the original children of Clarence and Rose to be the host family. The host family chooses the location and date, and plans all the details. This year it was the descendants of Fay and Florize Hepworth {my grandparents} that were the host family, which meant that my Mom and a couple of her sisters were the ones that had the reins.
As you know, my Dad's health had been very poor leading up to his death on July 13th. This reunion took place on June 18th, which meant that things were pretty dicey at my parents' home during that time. I wouldn't really call myself much of an event planner by nature, but I do hate to see an event fall by the wayside due to unfortunate circumstances, so I decided to step in and help make things happen.
I created flyers, helped plan the food, planned some activities, collected the RSVPs, and answered questions from people interested in coming. It felt a little crazy in the moment with all the other things going on in my life at that time (namely...my Dad's worsening health, a bridal shower I hosted the day before, the houseful of guests that were at our house that weekend to visit my Dad for Father's Day, and scrambling to get Ellie and Adam out the door for their summer activities), but I thought it came off beautifully!
Two of my aunts, my sisters, and some cousins stepped in and helped the details come together. Here are some of the activities we did:
1. Family trivia game garnered from information my sister, AnnaLisa, found in family member's obituaries found online.
2. Family bingo game (trying to find family members that have certain characteristics)
3. Food was homemade cafe rio salads that we provided. The rest of the food was potluck style.
4. We collected advice from people, then combined all of the tidbits of advice and created a document, which we shared afterward.
5. A couple of my cousins brought some physical activities for the kids
Here is a glimpse of who was there and how it turned out....
As you know, my Dad's health had been very poor leading up to his death on July 13th. This reunion took place on June 18th, which meant that things were pretty dicey at my parents' home during that time. I wouldn't really call myself much of an event planner by nature, but I do hate to see an event fall by the wayside due to unfortunate circumstances, so I decided to step in and help make things happen.
I created flyers, helped plan the food, planned some activities, collected the RSVPs, and answered questions from people interested in coming. It felt a little crazy in the moment with all the other things going on in my life at that time (namely...my Dad's worsening health, a bridal shower I hosted the day before, the houseful of guests that were at our house that weekend to visit my Dad for Father's Day, and scrambling to get Ellie and Adam out the door for their summer activities), but I thought it came off beautifully!
Two of my aunts, my sisters, and some cousins stepped in and helped the details come together. Here are some of the activities we did:
1. Family trivia game garnered from information my sister, AnnaLisa, found in family member's obituaries found online.
2. Family bingo game (trying to find family members that have certain characteristics)
3. Food was homemade cafe rio salads that we provided. The rest of the food was potluck style.
4. We collected advice from people, then combined all of the tidbits of advice and created a document, which we shared afterward.
5. A couple of my cousins brought some physical activities for the kids
Here is a glimpse of who was there and how it turned out....
The reunion was held at the church right behind my parents' house, so we brought my Dad down for a bit.
For as distracted as I was, I felt like it all came together well and I loved the opportunity to get to know so many "long lost" cousins, which I'd never met before. I'm also grateful my Mom got to connect and spend time with so many relatives before Dad passed! Family is awesome!
1 comment:
How wonderful! My mom's sister married a man whose mother was a Hepworth (in Idaho). I wonder if perhaps you all related somehow? It's a small world in the Church and the Mountain West!
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