Eyring/Eyring

I never thought of my mother as being artistic.  Brilliant, logical, as goal oriented as a heat-seeking missile and as full of energy as a treadmill at the gym--yes.  Artistic?  No.  I love the quarterly lunches I share with my Eyring cousins because I see aspects of the family I never knew before.  When I attended the funeral of my Aunt Jen, Mom's "other side sister", a year or two ago, I was fascinated to hear the story of Aunt Jen telling Grandpa she wanted to be an interior decorator and Grandpa saying, "No.  Our family are teachers."  Aunt Jen became a homec teacher.  This was about the same time my mother told Grandpa she was going to join the Navy and he said, "I'd rather see you in your coffin than in a Navy uniform."  Mom promptly joined the Waves.  In any event, on May 18, 2018, I joined my Eyring cousins for lunch at the home of Judy Peterson, Aunt Isabel's daughter from the "other side," who is a potter and a stained glass artist.

 Judy showed us her studio, filled with a potter's wheel, clay, and slabs of colored glass.

 Judy's stained glass windows were lovely.  As she showed us her creations, Aunt Isabel's and Aunt Maureen's daughters told about what wonderful seamstresses their mothers were, and what good gardeners.  And Midge Evans, Aunt Catherine's daughter from "our side" of the family, told about how much she loves music and how she plays in a symphony at BYU.  Maybe art is part of the  Eyring culture after all....

I love these women.  They are not only talented and charming, but very frank.  Sue (above left), Uncle Tony's granddaughter from his first wife, whom he divorced, told about spending her summers on ritzy Mercer Island in Seattle, where Uncle Tony had an estate as one of the richest bankers in Washington. "There were servants, boats docked on the lakefront, and acres of grass and flowers," she said.  A far cry from Uncle Tony's Pima, Arizona boyhood.  Kay (above right), Aunt Maureen's daughter, takes a special interest in me, since our mothers were born just six months apart and grew up practically as twins.  If I am lucky, at each lunch one of my cousins will say I am just like my mother.

I have loved getting to know Midge Evans (left above).  Her son, James, is a sociology professor at the University of Chicago whom Jonny and Jenny knew from their Chicago ward.  James once went "underground", as a college student in SLC, sleeping with the homeless at Pioneer Park and bringing them to Church at our neighboring ward, where his aunt and uncle, Bob and Judy Edwards, attended services.  Midge is calmly tolerant of all such vagaries.  And my favorite favorite cousin is Little Camilla (right above), Aunt Caroline's daughter.  Little Camilla is on the board of National Public Radio and chair of the board of the Leakey Foundation, which sponsors anthropology research.  She had her DNA tested and found she is 2% Neanderthal.  As I hugged Little Camilla goodbye, I assured her she is my very favorite Neanderthal.  Such good times together!