Wherein my Aunt will marry her Cousin

My great-aunt Cill is several years younger than my granny was - she's probably about 65 these days. She's been married 3 times: Husband Number One was a devout Mormon for whom she converted to the LDS faith and married at the ripe old age of 17. A year and a half later, they had a new baby, and he had a brain tumor. He died at 19, leaving his young daughter and widow to fend for themselves in this cold harsh world. That daughter would live to be 26, but problems with drugs led to a night that ended her life either by suicide or murder - we're not really sure which. Her next husband was a Jewish man. They had two children together, and plenty of fights. She left when the infidelity and physical boxing matches became too much. Husband Number Three came along many years later, when her children were grown. He was another Mormon man, recently widowed, and he made her remember what love was supposed to feel like. He (ironically, tragically, horribly) died from brain cancer just a few years after their nuptials.

So Aunt Cill has had more than her fair share of tragedy and heartbreak in her life. She still sings church songs at nursing homes and revivals. She still cares for her ailing 98-year-old mother. She still visits with her grandbaby and her children. She has maintained a good relationship with her brothers and sisters.

Well, Aunt Cill has fallen in love. She's fallen in love with a man who is her double first cousin. (He is the offspring of Grandma's brother and Poppy's niece. ) Apparently, the family is in an uproar. Her sister says "She's making a choice there, like if she decided she was going to be homosexual." So, there, that's a good example of the thought-process of most of my extended "this is right, and that is wrong" family.

Fuck that.

I say good for you, Aunt Cill! I hope you find happiness. Yeah, maybe it's a little queer that you're contemplating marriage to someone who has such a close genetic makeup to your own, but you're not going to be making any babies together, so who cares? It's hard to find another person to share life with. It's hard to find someone who can light up the room and make the rain stop. When you find it, you'd better run with it. Here's to you, and my wish for your happily ever after!