Happy 2023! I’ve officially been blogging for 15 years now. Crazy to think it’s been that long! There aren’t a lot of things I stick with for that long but here we are!

The first theme for this year is “I’d like to meet”. We recently lost my uncle, Max. We lost him shortly before Christmas. Today I was reflecting about him seeing and talking to my grandparents (his parents) a couple of days before his passing. I think about this a lot because it’s happened to so many people I know right before they passed away. In regard to my ancestry, there are a lot of people I’d like to meet. I know I won’t get to meet them all since we won’t all be going to the same place after death. Hopefully, I will meet the majority of them though.

I asked my husband today if he ever thought about this part of death – like, who would visit him and escort him out of this world when he died. He said no. Me? I think about it a lot. I think about the people I hope to see again after my death. I’m the opposite of my husband. In fact, I have a running list and have made requests for who escorts me from this life to the next. Never hurts to ask, right?

So, in addition to Jesus and a few prominent Biblical figures (I’m looking at you, Queen Esther!), I’d like to meet the two angel grandbabies that I never got to meet. I’d like to see my son again and my grandparents (Audrey, Gene, Jessie, and Troy) and great grandparents (Mark DRAKE, Edith HUBBARD DRAKE, Ralph LARKIN, Bessie WILLIAMS LARKIN, Albert BATES, Dettie GIBSON BATES, William RITER, and Laura BULLOCK RITER), but most of those are people I’ve already met and the theme was who would you like to meet. So, in addition to my angel grandbabies, I think I would like to meet Emily HENNIG or Lavina PILGRIM DRAKE. I’d like to know what they’re stories are and why I can’t find any information about them. Add in Lucinda DOW GIBSON. She had a crazy life. And maybe the great-grandmothers I didn’t meet – Laura BULLOCK RITER and Dettie GIBSON BATES (see links above). (I’d even settle for meeting the great-grandpas I never met: Ralph LARKIN, Albert BATES, and William RITER – see links above.) We could all sit down and have tea together and discuss the lives they led. I wouldn’t even mind if we discussed what I got right and what I got wrong about them on my blog. I could own up to mistakes in my research for this particular tea time.

Alas, I’ll have to wait. Hopefully they’re waiting for me in the place I intend to be after my death. I’m dying to find out…ha ha. Couldn’t resist that one. In the meantime, I’ll just have to keep researching and keep updating my death bed request list.

I apologize for the morbid start to 2023. Despite the morbid start (or maybe because of it), I recommend clicking the names above to read my blog posts about the people mentioned in this blog. I hope you have a wonderful year – meet all your goals, see all your dreams come true, and find all the love you ever wanted in your life.

All my love,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog