For those of you who aren't familiar with Caprece's family tree :) Kimmie Jo is Caprece's Aunt....Jacqi's youngest sister.
My fondest memories of my niece Caprece started when she and Karmen came to live with us on 2nd ave. in Marianna Florida. (Jacqi had to sort through some unpleasant business before she could join us.) I had always been the baby of our family meaning that I had never had to take care of anyone. Caprece and Karmen became like younger siblings. I guess because they were so close in age and depended on each other, they acted a lot like twins. It was like they could read each other’s thoughts. They were always instep with each other. It’s not that they did anything bad; they were just always coming up with ways to aggravate a pre-teen who didn’t know the first thing about baby-sitting. LOL We learned together.
They loved to have stories read to them, Karmen would sit with me looking at the book but Caprece had to keep moving. She would act out the parts in song or dance. I used to think she would be involved in the arts in some way. (Acting, singing, dancing) Sitting still was not one of her favorite things. I could identify with her as I couldn’t or didn’t want to stay in any one place for very long. I used to call Karmen my baby genus. Believe me, it wasn’t that I was a good teacher; she just wanted to learn everything fast. She was reading before she started school.
Caprece was always curious and didn’t want to miss anything that was going on around her. We would laugh so hard when she would get so caught up with what ever was going on that she would put off going to the bathroom, afraid she would miss something, until she would start dancing in place, holding her self until someone would whisk her off to the bathroom. She was always giggling and having fun. She could be sullen but those times were rare. She really had a positive spirit.
I loved the way she was uninhibited around her family and friends. Again I thought she would be a famous actor one day. Mom used to say this trait would help her when she grew up and faced the world as an adult. (Mom was always full of insights).
The summers were spent at the local swimming hole called “Blue Springs”. Mom would drop us off at lunch and pick us back up after work. The water was freezing, fed by a spring from a cave. It would take them both a while to work their way into the freezing water to the point they were used to it. They were eager to learn to swim and I was eager to teach them. We knew we had to get to the point where we could all hang out with the big guys.
Caprece felt comfortable swimming under water in the shallow before learning to swim on top. I thought this was pretty incredible. They both wanted to swim where the big girls were at the diving pier and they worked hard to learn the “dog paddle.”
We finally graduated to the pier, which was pretty scary. The diving pier was a large concrete thing with a high dive and regular diving board. It started out in shallow water on the sides but in the front where the diving board was it dropped of into a big beautiful cave. There was a ladder on the shallow side but they would have to jump on their tiptoes to get to it. They had a blast! Every time they started climbing up the ladder I would hear shouts of “KIMMIE JO, KIMMIE JO, WATCH,” and they would jump into the water and come up looking to see if I was watching. My friends and I would all clap, hoot and holler “Way to go!” This would go on for hours. I never heard a complaint until they were hungry and would get really cold from being out of the water.
I left home the fall of my 16th birthday to finish school in Houston with my sister Charla. At the time we didn’t realize I would be gone for good. I watched them grow up from afar.
I’ll never forget one time Jacqi was staying with me. It was summer and Mom, Karmen & Caprece came to visit. Caprece had plans to visit Uncle Porter so Karmen was staying with us. It was getting close to time for Mom and Caprece to leave. Caprece wondered over to the swing set and just sat down. Karmen strolled over and sat by her. I’m not sure if they said anything to each other but seemed to be comfortable in their space with each other. When the time came to leave they stood and hugged hard. Karmen stood with her Mom’s around her waving at Caprece goodbye. This sounds really sad but I’m telling this memory to show the bond these two sisters have.
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