52 Ancestors - Week 16 - Step

 52 Ancestors – WEEK 16 – Step

By Cynthia Keefer Patton

When I was first married at the age of 20 to a man who was 38, I immediately became a stepmother. My new family included a 13 year old girl and a 15 year old boy. They had a mother, I was barely older than them and they did not live with us. So I was stepmother in name only.

I used to tell them--think of me more like a sibling or young aunt. We got along because of our age. I made a huge effort to make our time together normal. I encouraged their father to keep close contact. We were stationed in Alaska and flew them both up in the summer. There were wonderful memories.

My husband and I adopted a son and he loved his siblings, even though there was a huge age difference.

They married and had children and I became a grandmother at a super young age. But I loved them all. My son and their children spent many days together on our farm in Mississippi.

After their father passed away, I met another man. With him came three more stepdaughters, aged 5, 7, and 10. We got married and now I have been in their lives a good long time. They are starting to have children, so I am step-grandmother again.

I have step-great grandchildren from my first marriage.

For someone who was not able to have children naturally, I stepped happily into the role of mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother.