Consanguinity — By Tommy Purser

“Consanguinity.”
Now there’s a word not generally used in normal, run-of-the-mill conversation.
Fact is, I can’t remember the last time I heard or read the word, nor can I remember a time I used the word in writing or conversation.
I know its definition and how it might be used, but I don’t use it. Certainly not in this newspaper.
I would prefer, instead, to use “blood relationship” or “kinship” or, simply, “family.”
Now, there’s a word everyone knows and understands. But some know and understand “family” better than others.
Saturday afternoon, I attended a gathering of a large group of people who, indeed, understand family better than most. A group of people for whom the word “family” defines who they are. Not only who they are as a group of people but who they are as individuals. Indeed, their family ties define their very existence.
I was envious.
I found myself wishing that I, like them, could understand exactly what family meant to each of them. What it felt like to experience family the way each of them did.
From the time I was old enough to be really aware of my surroundings, aware of the people in my life, I never experienced what being part of a family was like….at least not in the way many people, experience their families.
During my pre-school years, my mother, my father, my sister and I lived in coastal southeast Georgia. Later, we lived in northeast Florida, and then in east Georgia where I spent my high school years and met the love of my life.
My parents’ families, which would be my extended family, resided far, far away. I didn’t grow up with that part of my family. I barely knew them throughout my formative years. Today, they are almost all gone, never to ever be really known by me.
Saturday, I witnessed what a real sense of family looks like. In particular, I watched as the descendants of Eschol and Onie Hill celebrated the Rose of Sharon Ministries building on Hallspur Road. That ministry was a long-held dream of Eschol and Onie Hill’s oldest daughter, the late Wilhelmina Hill Parrish. Wilhelmina, her siblings, her cousins and other members of her family worked together for decades to transform the Rose of Sharon Ministries dream into a reality.
Eschol and Onie didn’t live long enough to see their daughter’s dream become real. Neither did Wilhelmina or any of her eight siblings. And, only one of Wilhelmina’s eight siblings’ spouses were there Saturday to celebrate that reality.
But there was a huge crowd there. A huge crowd of mostly family, and many friends. Including me. I was proud to be there — not as the editor of this newspaper but, rather, as a friend of many members of the Hill Family whom I have come to know and love over the last half century.
There were a lot of people there I didn’t know. But there were a lot of people there I DID know. And I am a better person today because I had the good fortune that our lives’ paths met during the journeys of our lives.
Saturday was a joyous day for the Hill family …. and for their friends. So it was a joyous day for me as well.