Campbell Clan reunion

     I am in SW Georgia today for the annual Campbell family Christmas reunion.  This tradition began decades ago when my grandparents, Carrie Mae and Ulmont Campbell, gathered all their children and grand-children together on Christmas night for supper and gift-giving.

On their 50th Anniversary

 My grandmother always had a chafing dish of melted cheese with a wreath of crackers encircling it to the side of  the large dining table where ham, turkey, bread, and numerous accompaniments waited.  On the buffet table sat various desserts.  Coconut cake, my grandfather's favorite, lemon-cheese cake (does anyone make this anymore?), divinity, pound cake, and goodness knows what else!
     After my grandparents died, the family kept the tradition alive over the years.  The family has grown, of course, with numerous great grandchildren, and great-great's!  Two women were missing this year, though--my aunts Carolyn and Mary, leaving my mother as  the surviving child of Carrie Mae and Ulmont Campbell.   I took these photos during the last Christmas reunion at which all three sisters were able to be together.

Carolyn Campbell Dixon, Bernice Campbell Stripling, and Mary Campbell Gunter

The traditonal melted cheese, surrounded by crackers and cakes.

The sisters share some family gossip!



My Aunt Carolyn left us at the end of last October, when the veil between worlds becomes so thin we might be able to see through to the other side, according to Celtic belief.   All Hallows, or Samhain as our Scots ancesters called it, is the Celtic New Year.

      This is the last photograph I have of my Aunt Mary, who was a black-haired beauty when she was young.  She always had a flair for wearing bright colors, as you can see from this turquoise tunic.  Her hair had turned a beautiful silver in her last years.  She died on our  traditional New Year's Eve last year.
         Although my poem below is set on All Hallow's Eve, it captures how I felt today at the Campbell reunion, remembering the faces of my gone family members.

                  Halloween Again 

and time slides like silk 

against silk.  

Easy to get lost 

in letting go 

this time of year. 

Lost letters.  

Lost  memories 

Lost copper 

earrings a  friend 

 gave me.  

Split Silk, 

I haven’t forgotten 

 the name 

of that church 

on the far side 

of home , 

how it rose 

from the roadside, 

 a hymn to the landscape 

I passed through 

 where pumpkins 

lay stacked beside fields 

 like the kindling 

my ancestors gathered 

for bonfires 

on All Hallows Eve 

when the veil 

between seen 

and unseen trembles 

sheer as silk 

through which 

we might, if 

we come close 

enough, see 

the other side 

waiting for us 

as a mirror waits 

to be filled 

with  the bright 

face of forever. 

from  Coming to Rest, LSU Press