A Family Reunion

I will be taking some time off here from blogging, reading, and probably emails. I'm not sure yet about that, I'm going to try it depends on time.

Here's the scoop:

My dad had three sisters and one brother. I met his brother once or twice, but never his sisters. His sisters had children and once in awhile, when he'd send my mom and I to Indiana to visit my mother's family, we would also visit his mother, my other beloved grandmother. Now once in awhile there would be some cousins over and I'd get to play with them.

They were my cousins. I'd only see one or two cousins about one hour every two years! So basically while I knew and loved my grandmother, I never knew my aunts, uncles, or cousins. I never knew why and I wish I had asked him before he died, but I didn't. I just never thought about it. It never occurred to me - can you believe it? I assumed it was normal.

My mom had a brother and sister. Her brother never married, her sister had two children. One lives in Indiana who I will visit when I'm there and one lives in California who I never see. Other than that - my immediate family - that's it. I've always felt kind of alone without a large family. I love people and I would love to have more relatives. Guess I would love a connection.

About two years ago maybe three, my sister started doing a family tree - our dad's side of course - we have the same dad different mothers. (She did a great job by the way.)

I had one phone number that linked me to my past - a cousin - she wrote me once - and we started sending each other cards for the holidays. My sis in California and I talked about it so I called Carolyn. I found out that she was on facebook. She sounded just like my grandmother! Looked like her too. Then my sis got involved and it all started to take shape.

Well one cousin - led to another cousin - that led to at least 100 cousins. 100 plus cousins that I didn't know I had or who they were or where they were. So to make a long story short - they're having a reunion for us. My sister is flying in from California and I'm driving to Indiana for a FAMILY REUNION! Funny thing is each of my dad sisters had big families of there own - so big that they lost being in touch with the two other sisters families. Everyone kind of spread out. So this reunion is really going to be a reunion for everyone! It took about a year to plan and find someone connected to each sister. All the original siblings are gone - this is all first cousins and so forth.

I'm going to meet family I never knew I had. I'm 58 - is that weird?

So I'm not going to post - read posts - maybe not even email (I'm not sure yet, I'll try). So I hope you'll understand. I want to concentrate on the moment with all my brain cells firing! I want to experience everything as it may be a chance of a life time for me. I want to be available and keep my time open. I want to see if they know anything about my dad. You know kind of pick their brains. And I get to see my sis again!!!

I'll be back on July 29th - my last break for awhile.

This is something I've waited for a life time for. If I had thought this was possible a year ago - I would have said no. Now I have 100 cousins - never doubt what God can do - we put our own limits on him - he doesn't have limits.


“We must always have old memories and young hopes.” Arsène Houssaye (1815-1896); writer, novelist, poet