Beautiful Betty's Memoirs of the Wild Whites!!

Last week I went to Southern California (Dana Point) to spend some time with my cousin Betty Anderson.  While I was in Hawaii with Kris & Karen, (Betty's twin daughters) Karen mentioned that she was headed to So. Cal. to spend some time with her mom and I thought a mini-reunion might be in order.

 

I had a great time!  We spent most of it reminiscing about loved ones living and gone and going thru albums of photos that Betty has with pictures dating back to the l920's. Betty was the first (and only) child of the oldest sibling in my mother's family and I was the last child of the youngest of the 6 siblings so there is 28 years between us. Even though she was my mothers niece, there was only a 10 year age difference between the two, so Betty and my mom's relationship was more sisterly, than aunt and niece. It also puts her children and me closer in age and we grew up together.

 

Betty has been very diligent about recording her memoirs. I was able to photocopy all of her writings while I was there and the reading is so fascinating! All these middle aged stodgy adults that I remember as reserved, hard working aunts and uncles and extended family, she remembers as hard drinking, wild partying, poker playing, horse betting, tavern owning fun people!! Needless to say, I am getting an entirely different view of my mother and her siblings than I ever had before.

 

Betty Jeanne Krug/Anderson has always been the most gorgeous creature- and she still is!!  She has the most beautiful eyes and smile that time will never fade. I grew up thinking she looked just like Marilyn Monroe. She has always been an inspiration to me. She is very intelligent, athletic, adventerous, and artistic with an incredible sense of style.  She is also the most upbeat, happy, engaging, compassionate, animal loving person I have ever known. I have always admired her independence thrughout her life. She has lived everywhere from Mexico to Africa, and has traveled most places in between from the Galapagos islands to Alaska. She has raised three amazing children, frequently on her own as her husband Dave spent multiple tours away from home in the Marine Corp, including two in Viet Nam.

 

 

There are so many things about Betty that resonate so deeply within me:  the priority that her children have always been in her life, her  abiding love for animals, the deep connection she has with the sea and the sand, as well as her love for snow, the mountains and skiing. We both had mothers that we were closely connected with, even if those mothers were embarassing or annoying at times.  We both found the love of our lives later than the norm and had our children when we were older- both of us having our first child at 33 and our last at 40.

My oldest child, Rachel Elizabeth, was given her middle name because of my love and respect for Betty.  The name Rachel is after my and Betty's grandmother, Rachel Evelyn Dean Major White.  I wish we all lived closer together so that my children could have the priviledge to know and love Betty as I do.