Young at Heart

I've had a lot of different emotions these last few days it's been hard for me to concentrate on much else.

As I've mentioned my Aunt Ruth is very sick, at home now with all of her family spending time just loving them when she is strong enough to be awake.

I'm very sad of course, my heart is breaking for myself and for my cousins, the Young family, as I've said so many times we are related through love, not blood.

"Young at Heart" means so much more than just facing everything you do and feel with a child's pure heart, for me it also means being a Young. An actual family, my family and having them in your heart, the song is fitting and I will forever think of all of them whenever I hear the song.



I've also been remembering so many good times in my life, my life with the Young family and it would be like a movie you would come out saying, that was good, but that's not real life. We just had good times, simple, old fashioned good times, surrounded by genuine love.

We made up games, we sang songs every car ride. I remember one time my Uncle Tom turned off the lights for just a second while driving on this really dark, hilly road, scaring us all but thrilling us at the same time. There was another road, Uncle Tom didn't turn his lights off but it was so hilly, up and down, like a real life roller coaster. My cousin Teresa was just a baby and she didn't dig it at all, might have even got sick from the ride.

Teresa was a hoot as a kid, wild child! She's grown into a wonderful woman, much like her mother. I can remember going to a 4th of July fireworks show out in Long Island somewhere. Teresa kept her hands over her ears the whole time and still when we got home, she didn't dig it.

Uncle Tom eased my fear for holding a sparkler on the 4th of July. He had a giant sparkler and let me use that as my first try the lit end so far away from me. I was delighted and never afraid of sparklers again.

I remember my cousin Elizabeth playing a game with her younger brother Anthony, having him jump over leaves that were covering poop. Yes poop. She eventually moved the leaves and Anthony landed and slipped in the poop. Liz was so scared she was going to get in trouble and hid in the garage. Scared the daylights out of my aunt and uncle, looking, searching and not finding her. By the time they did find her any trouble she could have been in was over, she was safe in her parents' arms.

Although not big in Brooklyn while I was growing up, the delivery of newspapers and milk to your front door was a regular thing in Long Island. There was a time my cousins Tommy and Steven had newspaper routes and I remember going along with them one morning and sitting in the big bag where the papers were kept helping them out and having so much fun. I didn't have to do it everyday but I enjoyed the few times I did.

The Young's had a piano and although sadly I never learned to play I could play a few easy little tunes on the piano, learning again something else from this amazing family. At one time there was an old fashioned player piano, just another thing that was special, interesting. Something I've never seen again.



My cousins had steel drums and I remember them teaching me the first few notes of Yellow Bird. Probably the first 5 seconds!



The Young's lived in Long Island and that's where our families joined together but they eventually moved upstate to the Catskills and now they are all settled in Rhode Island.

The times we had in the Catskills were great times too. One house they lived in was all alone on a dark road. No neighbors for at least a mile or two on one side and a cemetery on the other. Of course we visited the cemetery, we were kids checking out a scary place.

Their house was huge, three floors. The downstairs had like three huge living room sections. One night while visiting, our parents were at the restaurant Aunt Ruth and Uncle Tom owned and there were a bunch of us kids home waiting for pizza to be brought back and playing cards and board games while waiting. Laura was the oldest of us at home that night and she was probably about 15. We ended up scaring ourselves to death over the cemetery that night. I remember Laura laughing at us but we were all hiding and eventually we called our parents, come home, there are ghosts making noises in the house.

The wind was making noises and our imaginations were going wild. And as much as Laura was laughing that night, she agreed to calling our parents so I'm thinking she was a little scared herself!

My cousin Steven gave me my first and last ride on a motorcycle. My mom had told me no, did not want me to go on the motorcycle when I asked if I could. Didn't listen. I went for a five minute ride, upstate, in the mountains with my cousin who was probably about 19 at the time, daredevil age! I was flipping out from the second we took off, wanting to go back home right away. I think it took me a few minutes to be able to speak to tell Steven to stop and take me home. When I walked in the house my mother took one look at my face and said, you went on that motorcycle didn't you. I said yes. And she said I know you'll never do that again. Again my mother was right saying no in the first place and right again knowing I would never do it again.

When I spoke to my sister Debbie this week she was of course as upset as me but was also feeling the loss of our mom even more. Aunt Ruth reminds her of our mom as she does for me, and Debbie just feels like we're losing another piece of our mom. I understand. But as my niece Bella told her dad and her brothers just recently, our loved ones that we lost live inside us, our loved ones still living, they live inside us.

So that's me, I may be a Gillen by birth but I'm a Young at Heart.