My cousin Eddie's 40th wedding anniversary (January 22, 2026)
To mark the occasion of my first cousin, Eddie Coggins) 40th wedding anniversary today to his wife, Maureen, I decided to post a few things that I remember regarding them. Eddie is my first cousin by way of his mother, Norine Freeman Coggins Stanly, who was my mother's (Loretta Freeman Green) older sister. Eddie and Maureen were married on January 22, 1986. I myself was finishing my senior year in college. To the best of my recollection, the first time I remember meeting Maureen was when she and Eddie had brought their infant son, Tony (Edward Anthony Coggins), over for our grandmother, Veda Davis Freeman, to hold him. Our grandmother was blind, since before Eddie or I were ever born, and so she ran her hands over Tony's tiny face carefully. It was her way of sensing what he looked like. When Eddie and I were growing up, and were at our grandparents' house on Burton Street one summer afternoon (both of us were still in elementary school at the time), Eddie told me that wh...