25. The Muyskens
This weekend Greg and I are heading up to New Jersey for the funeral of a long time family friend, Ann Muyskens.
Which got me to thinking about the Muyskens.
As a kid I had the feeling that being with the Muyskens was really living life.
When our families were together it had the quality of completeness. It always felt like an adventure and safety wrapped in to one. It was action-packed and anything could happen.
In their family there was Noel, Kirsten, and Kevin. Then our family continued the stair-steps on down with Amy, Anna, and Allen.
I think I liked having older “siblings” instead of always being the oldest ones.
I have so many memories of our families being together.
Noel making hilarious jokes about Washington crossing the Delaware while we were all canoeing the Delaware (or actually, making hilarious jokes about everything all the time!)
Kirsten and me choreographing dances in the living room.
Running around the neighborhood with Kevin.
Playing charades or the Dictionary game with all 10 of us.
Or us kids putting on puppet shows with the weird marionettes my parents brought back from Mexico.
The usual pattern was the four parents hanging out around the table long after dinner and figuring out the secret to life, with Ann leading the pack.
It’s Chemistry!
It’s Kierkegaard!
And on it went.
Dave Muyskens died 8 years ago.
My dad died 5 years ago.
Ann died a few months ago.
So the last parent standing is my mom.
Ann was a force. She brought energy and liveliness to every interaction.
Ann was serious, but in a life-affirming way. She had a fierce intelligence, and a bottomless curiosity, and mostly I remember her wanting to help people.
I like that she treated everyone (even us kids) with respect.
The last time I saw here was a few years ago, and she still had the same Zing! Intensely telling us of her passions and projects. I can still hear her distinctive voice.
She made so many ripples with her life and touched so many people. She was the kind of person you wanted to be around.
I sure am missing Ann today. And the easy friendship of four parents and six kids.