The Legacy

It was just a photograph that popped up in an email. But it opened a Pandora’s Box of memories that had been so carefully tucked away.

The four young people are standing on a rooftop (Tar’s Beach as it was affectionately known in those days of our innocence). They stand closely together side by side viewing the world with all the joie de vivre that had accompanied them throughout most of their lives. It was a quality my Mother found inexplicable, and a trait I desperately craved to emulate.

They were orphans, not quite penniless, but certainly in peril financially since their Mother’s death. They lived with their Grandfather. Literally, they cared for the old gentleman and did so with loving concern. He was also my Grandfather, but that is not part of this story.

When the picture was taken, the oldest and the youngest brothers had both enlisted in the U.S. Army. It was probably shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The one civilian was the middle brother, rejected for service due to a rheumatic heart condition, undiagnosed until he reported for a physical. Their adored sister, smiling in the snapshot, was the glue that held this family together.

They were “The Cousins.” Their Mother was my Dad’s sister, and he became a surrogate father to them early in their childhood when their own Dad abruptly left this world. From that time on, they were part of our extended menage. But that’s not quite accurate, because they totally retained their own identity as a family, never relinquishing their camaraderie, problems, or sorrows to outsiders. While Dad was their confidante, all decisions were made within their own quartet. Problems were only presented to their Uncle as a last resort.

They brought a joy of laughter, love, anticipation, and magic into my life whenever there was a knock on our door, and one of them appeared. Sometimes it was difficult for my Mother to comprehend their enchantment. I never quite understood it either, because it was innate to the group, but I knew I hungered for their companionship.

This is probably one of the last pictures that captured the essence of a family that had escaped the boundaries of financial and emotional difficulties and survived with a miraculous spirit of love, laughter and belief in God and country before their four worlds changed. I have always wondered how their Mother, widowed when they were so young, finding herself financially distressed, managed to leave them such an incredible legacy; the total and absolute belief in the joy of life and humanity.

Their inheritance was one no amount of money could ever buy. Thankfully, three of them shared it with all who crossed their paths during the time they spent on this earth. The one remaining still continues to do so and thus the Quartet’s legacy lives on.