Funeral Program Friday - Cousin Bunt

Bernice Hosch Pebbles

July 7, 1928 - July 12, 2014

Of all my mother's paternal first cousins who passed this past year, it was her cousin Bernice's passing, that seem to strike me the hardest. Born in the same year, separated by three months a a few days, my mother and Bunt were essentially the same age and as far back as I can remember, always seemed very close.

As mom explained it to me, she and her brothers and sisters tended to buddy up with their Hosch first cousins based on age. So, it only made sense that she and cousin Bunt would have been the two that bonded. 

During my lifetime, I remember them writing each other, exchanging pictures of their children and in Cousin Bunt's case, grandchildren. I think this meant a lot to mom and especially cousin Bunt. Her daughter Pamela, whom I had never met prior to the funeral, thanked mom for all the correspondence with her mother through the years and told mom how much they meant to cousin Bunt.

After we got word that Cousin Bunt had passed, both mom and I recalled one of our most favorite times of visiting with Cousin Bunt and her family, Mom, Dad, and I were on the way back home from dad's college Alma Mater homecoming. Cousin Bunt's house was on the way home, and mom wanted to stop by and visit with her cousin. While there, her youngest daughter, at the request of dad the former band director, played her flute for us. Remembering that was a wonderful and precious remembrance and one I'll probably never forget even though at the time that it happened I think I was being a brat.

Cousin Bunt was laid to rest in the same cemetery where her parents and several of her siblings are interred.

And with Cousin Bunt's passing, it also brings the realization that mom only has one paternal first cousin left. And even though that is heart breaking but I'm also thankful that mom has gotten an opportunity to reconnect with her first cousins over these past few years and see most of them in person.

RIP Cousin Bunt. You will be sorely missed.

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Funeral Card Friday is part of an ongoing series that was started by Dee of Funeral Cards & Genealogy.

Cousin Bernice's "Bunt" Funeral Program is part of my personal collection. In posting her funeral program, and due to privacy concerns, I chose to black out the names of her children and grandchildren.