The Magic of Gathering
- Lauren Hudson
- Feb 1
- 6 min read
A note for those reading:
A few weeks ago, over 200 people gathered in Kennewick to celebrate and honor my incredible Grandma. I chose to speak and am sharing it here for anyone who didn’t have the opportunity to know her. Edits were made for readability, and pictures were added for the story, but for the most part, it’s the same speech I gave.
Thank you to my aunts and uncles for orchestrating such a beautiful event and to the loved ones who traveled from all over to honor my Grandma's life with us. A special acknowledgement to my cousins Jennisue and Alyssa, who spoke so beautifully and shared a wonderful tribute to our Grandma. It was a privilege to stand beside them and share our hearts, both individually and together.
I hope you get a small glimpse of her life through these stories. As always, thank you for reading <3
With love,
Gwen’s granddaughter
Gwendolyn “Gwen” Jeanne Hudson
September 21, 1939 – October 10, 2025
Celebration of Life
The Reach Museum
Sunday, January 18th, 2026
Hi everyone.
Thank you so much for being here today. My name is Lauren, and I’m one of Gwen's thirteen grandchildren. While there’s so much I could say about my grandma, especially now, as an adult looking back, I want to share a little snippet of what it was like to be her grandchild.
At some point or another, I’m sure all of you have heard about the infamous Cousins Camp. Every year, my cousins and I were invited to spend a week at my grandparents’ cabin. No parents allowed. From four years old until I was in college, Cousins Camp never failed to be the highlight of my year. But it wasn’t just fun and games without structure… actually, it was highly structured.
We were all scheduled to cook or clean for every meal of the day. There were strict life jacket rules. Mandatory walks around the lake that little Lauren always complained about. And of course, there was the “take all you want, eat all you take” rule… until they threatened to stop making Dorito pie when we did, in fact, take all we wanted and ate all we took.
Those weeks shaped us more than we realized at the time. Instead of sharing from my own perspective, I asked my cousins to send me one thing they remember about Grandma from Cousins Camp. And it was beautiful to see how similar they were–how similarly we experienced our grandma’s magic, just in different contexts. So, as I share these stories today, my hope is that you would feel the magic we felt, and that we still feel every day, from the love she deposited in our lives.
As a grandchild, here are three things that stuck with us:
Grandma used every moment to make us feel special
[Taylor]
I remember writing a poem about the quietness of the cabin in the winter. She always made sure I knew how much she appreciated it, especially the line about the silent snowflakes on my snow jacket. That was Grandma. She noticed the details, the small things that made life meaningful, and she made you feel seen and valued.
She poured herself into all of us—planning every meal, every activity, even the snacks, for the entire week for all of her grandchildren. Every year, she made sure every one of us felt included, cared for, and loved. She didn’t just give her time; she gave her thought, her heart, and her energy.
[Ryan]
One year at Cousins Camp, we were making the bookmarks with the patterns and after everyone was done, I stayed for hours just making more and more of them, saying no to boating or anything because I was making bookmarks. I kept showing Grandma, and after every one I made, she said it was “the best one yet,” even though it might have just been the colors that changed.
[Jennisue]
Whether it was paper plate awards or giving us tasks that she knew we would enjoy or be good at, even though she had so many grandkids, she paid attention to who we were as individuals.
[Troy]
Grandma remembered what meals we all liked to cook. She knew I loved helping prepare the hobo stew, and she would assign me that dinner every time. She was the best.
She remembered us, and in doing so, taught us how to remember one another.
Grandma was our teacher of care, compassion, and patience
[Jack]
When everyone was fishing, I stayed back with Grandma and she taught me how to tie my shoes at the cabin. She tied them for me on my feet, and then I tried with her help.
[Reagan]
Grandma helped me feel better about sleeping away from home, especially during the first year when she couldn’t sleep at all.
[Alyssa]
I remember pressing flowers with her in the campground at Crawfish Lake. She was just so patient with Nicole and I and taught us the whole process, from picking the flowers to pressing them.
[Hailey]
I remember sitting for hours playing Bananagrams with Grandma. She was so good at telling us if our words were actual words.
[Easton]
I’m sure teaching a bunch of eight to ten-year-olds how to put beads in an exact order on tiny pins was not the easiest thing to do. Or trusting us with bottles of paint to decorate shirts. Or trusting three or four of us at a time to cook a meal for everyone. Especially looking back now that I’m older, I never remember her showing even the slightest bit of frustration or annoyance. She always had a smile on her face.
Her patience wasn’t accidental. It was something she intentionally chose, over and over again.
Grandma embodied the magic of gathering
[Justin]
I vividly remember cooking the fish we would catch at the cabin with Grandma. But it didn’t have to be fish. It was the act of cooking together, spending time together, and providing for everybody that stood out.
[Cole]
When I brought my friends to the cabin, Grandma made all of mine and Jack's friends wash dishes and go through that process after every meal. By the end of our trip, the boys knew by heart how to wash dishes in the cabin the way we were supposed to do it. We painted shirts and listened for the bell for dinner. We listened to all the old music too. Everything I grew up loving from Cousins Camp, she shared with my friends.
Top: Gwen Hudson, Facebook post, 30 July 2017. Caption: “Fishing was good this AM. Fish tonight…”
Bottom: Gwen Hudson, Facebook post, 28 July 2017. Caption: “Guess who washed dishes tonight?”
It wasn’t just about what we were doing–it was about who was there. Grandma made room. She widened the circle.
[Nicole]
One of my favorite images I have of Grandma in my mind at Cousins Camp is her and Papa sitting on the dock in the mornings at sunrise. Sometimes I would wake up in the loft before most of the other cousins, and I could smell their freshly brewed coffee pot. I would look out the window to see them sitting on the bench on the dock, sipping their coffee, looking at the sunrise. She was always such a calming presence.
Though many of you aren’t grandchildren, I know you felt those things too. Grandma Gwen used every moment to make us feel special. She was our teacher of care, compassion, and patience. And she was the magic of gathering. While sitting on the dock and doing chores might not be inherently special, she taught us to recognize how the mundane is magic because we were together.
Now, my memory.
[Lauren]
As cousins in the loft, ten to twelve of us sleeping like sardines on foam pads and in sleeping bags, I always assumed we annoyed our grandparents. Instead of sleeping, we would watch Mr. Bean, steamroll each other, yell at each other for farting in close quarters, and, of course, demand “waterrrrrr!”
But I’ll never forget what my grandma said to me one day. She told me that one of her favorite parts of Cousins Camp was our “bedtime”–when her and Papa would fall asleep to us wrestling, bickering, shushing, and giggling above.
How beautiful that image of her is to me. Her and Papa sitting on the dock in silence in the morning, and then later, at the end of the day, her and Papa lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, listening to us, and soaking in the joy of what they had created.
I believe this is an invitation for all of us today.
Take a moment.
Look around.
What a blessing it is to stand here, staring at all of you, and soaking in the joy of what she’s created.
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