Today we celebrated the life of Eileen Burford (Maiden name "Steen") who was a cousin to my granny, Evelyn Chambers (Maiden name "Trueman"). Eileen and I once spoke briefly on the phone while I was visiting my cousin Mary Beth in Huntington Beach in July 2014, but I had the pleasure of hearing plenty of stories. She had a gift for remembering birthdays and she was known to call up friends and family to play & sing "Happy Birthday" and "You Are My Sunshine." She loved generously, laughed heartily, and lived fully.
It's clear to me now, why I felt such a strong pull to this place, and these people I'm so lucky to call family.
I didn't come out here with the intention of "finding myself". I genuinely just wanted to spend some time with friends, family, and the wilderness. But in doing so, in taking the time to get to know my relatives and where I come from, I'm starting to make sense of who I am. And when I say, where I come from, I guess I mean who I come from.
My Granny was a strong willed, high energy, loud, optimistic, in charge woman. She was always smiling, laughing, cracking jokes, teasing, delegating, and getting things done. She baked an incredible lemon cake, drank a lot of tea, and enjoyed the occasional Kahlua and milk on ice. But she was tough, and she was kind of a closed book. We didn't talk much about relatives or her younger years back in Ireland; Granda was more of a story teller.
So for the longest time, my Granny was the only female family member I had on my dad's side.
I think I've always thirsted for more strong female influences in my life; women I could relate to on a more intimate level; the kind of personal connection you can only get through family, because you physically share the same blood.
Not to say that I don't already have a strong community of women back home, but the more the merrier, right?
I guess what I'm trying to say is that, I found something I didn't even know I was looking for: more women I can relate to.
Women who've won medals, women who love fearlessly, women who've overcome obstacles with grace and strength; women who's wrinkles they've earned, who's laughter is pure, and who's spirits are as wild as the mountains themselves.
Through meeting these women, I'm starting to understand that the blood coursing through my veins actually has a lot more to do with who I am, than I may have realised.