Yesterday was a really remarkable day. You see, at the urging of my wife, we re-connected with my Dad’s (my biological father) side of the family. I’m not really sure why for over 25 years we had little to no contact with them. I guess he passed away in 1992 and prior to that, the relationship with him was pretty rough. My Mom had divorced him some 45 or 50 years ago and the there was little contact by any of us kids. I being the eldest had the most contact with him which was not much.
When my father (who basically raised us from childhood) passed away last August, my Aunt, (biological dad’s sister), and her daughter (my cousin), came to the funeral. Are you with me so far? This was the first time I had seen either of them for decades. I have many memories of my Aunt and Uncle and cousins from when I was a kid. My wife, as I said before, jumped all over the fact that we had had no contact and insisted that we all get together. So last night, my wife, Mom and 2 boys loaded up the car and headed across town to visit my 87 year old Aunt and my cousin, who is in town, taking care of his Mom as she broke her hip right before Christmas. As it turns out, she still lives in the same house as she did when I was a kid. My cousins (her kids), live in town, all within a 45 minute drive, so close yet so far away for all these years. Well it was a fascinating evening. My Aunt seemed very happy to see us and clearly enjoyed the boys, (who by the way were very well behaved) and my cousin was a wealth of information on everything about my Dad’s  side of the family. (for today I’ll refer to my biological dad as dad and the man who raised us and taught us everything we know as my father just to avoid any confusion) We got caught up on all our cousins, where they live, what they’re doing, who they married, their kids, my other Uncles and Aunts and more. It seems they all talked and thought about us for years as too wondered about them. As I said before, I don’t know why no one reached out to “the other side”. That’s not typical of me as I’m usually “the elephant in the room”according to my wife, who will take on uncomfortable situations. (not that it was an uncomfortable situation) I guess life just got away from me and I really didn’t think about it until seeing my Aunt at the funeral. Good news is it seems everyone is doing well and we have now taken the first step of re-connecting with family. Better late than never.
It also turns out that I am a descendant of King John the 1st, Charlemange, Mile Standish (of Mayflower fame) , numerous veterans of the Revolutionary War and more. Deep down I knew something like this was in my background because I always knew my wife was a Queen! My cousin has done extensive research on our family history and compiled a 2 inch thick report going all the way back to the 9th century. (He’s quite an educated man, completing seminary school and many other levels of education) I can’t wait for him to send me a copy so I can read more. It was also a good time for my Mom. While I’m sure she still has some bad memories of her 1st marriage, I think she enjoyed visiting with my Aunt again as they used to spend a lot of time together even after she remarried. When my Aunt’s husband (my Uncle) passed away some 20 years ago, I think they kind of stopped seeing each other.
We only scratched the surface on what we’ve all been doing for 25 years. How much can you cover in 3 hours? So, not being the one to check with anyone else, I blurted out, let’s get our other cousins in town and all get together for dinner! Fortunately my wife is always on board with my spontaneous suggestions. It looks like next week or so, we’ll all get together at our house. Hope my little brother will come, I’m sure he will. Anyhow, it was quite an evening, we’ll keep you posted.
We had a light dusting of snow last night and by the time we stopped for some take out, we got home just in time to get the kids to bed. We’ll let them sleep a little bit later this morning as they need as much as they can get. Sleep sure is a good thing. Lot’s of work today, some more taxes due tomorrow (not sure how we’ll handle that one!), and my wife is also back to work tomorrow. Have to run now as I’m already late from spending more time than normal writing this morning.
Hope all’s well with everyone and God bless you and your family.