Tuesday, June 15, 2021
Dear ValDee, it has been decades since we saw each other back in our Long Beach childhood years, and your little sisters were likely too young to remember me, and 25+ years since we had that Harris Family reunion in Nephi, but I want to express my sorrow at just learning last night about the loss of your father, my "Uncle" Val. I know from last communicating by mail with your mother just a few years ago that she was so proud of her family and still so in love with her sweetheart. What a unique family we were and remain...all these double cousins, our grandparents immigrating from England, two brothers marrying two sisters. Everyone resembled everyone else! Your father being one of the most handsome. I remember when so many of the cousins, our dads and my Aunt Eileen worked at Mobil Oil and we would get to go to Barneson Park for a big family event. Or sharing Thanksgiving around ping pong tables at Auntie Ida's. Or joining up for an Easter Brunch cookout in the rain. There were family conflicts at times, but there was always lots of love to soothe any perceived hurt.
Uncle Ted is the last surviving "cousin" of your dad's and my dad's very special generation. And it is that generation that looms large in my memory. To remember them is a painful joy at this time.
Sending sympathy, peace, and love, Annette Harris Gebb (daughter of John R. (Bob) Harris & Ramona, granddaughter of Theo and Elsa Harris.
