Ivy 2014 - Charlie 2019 ❤️ Third cousins?
Their great grandmas were sisters.
Gladys and Edna were two of seven Arnold girls, born at home throughout the 1910s and 20s.
Middle sister Joan, fell in love with an American soldier, stationed at North Mymms, and after VE Day, Joan was shipped to the US like cargo, along with hundreds of other GI Brides.
Joan gave birth to a daughter, Linda, in West Virginia, and Gladys’ daughter, Denise, came along 4 years later.
Resources were still scarce in post war Britain, and our family never had much anyway, so Joan would regularly package up Linda’s outgrown clothes and ship them the thousands of miles home, her own transatlantic route in reverse.
Two sisters, sharing the ordinariness of hand-me-down clothes.
Even in extraordinary circumstances.
My mother didn’t meet her cousin until they were both in their 40s, yet there are multiple photos of them as babies, toddlers and school-aged girls, in seemingly ‘matching’ outfits.
Our family tree is a widespread canopy, yet mine and my sister’s branch has become sparse.
I don’t see my extended family very often, but I still hear their leaves rustling around me. 🍃💚 #ivytheterrible
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