Cousins

Easter Visit

A cousin I had never met came and visited this weekend.  It's amazing when you meet someone you have never really talked to or been around and you feel like you have known them a million years!  A lot of this has to do with my cousin's personality, she is blessed with having a warm nature and kind heart that makes strangers friends immediately.

Her husband was very nice too, and had the same sense of humor.  I laughed until I cried.  We looked at family pictures and my Mom was able to give her some information on who was related to who and what it was like growing up in such a large family.  Mom was glad to finally meet a little niece she had never gotten to see grow up.  I say little, but my cousin is my age so I guess it's relative to my Mom's age!

I look forward to seeing my cousin again and maybe getting to meet her children too.  Mom was energized because she looked at pictures she had not thought about in years, and brought up memories she had almost forgotten. My cousin's children look so much like my nieces and nephews they could be brothers and sisters rather than cousins.  We got to look at a entire online picture album of her family thanks to the magic of the internet!

We are going to work together trying to trace some ancestry down.  I had done it in the past and she has done quite a bit of work going back even further than I had, so we are going to see what we can find out.  I had forgotten how fun I find that type of detailed work.

The Headache tried to make itself known this weekend but I have been able to squash it with voltage so far.  Not much sleep last night because it was being pesky, hoping for a good night tonight!  Maybe I just laughed too much?  Surely not!!!  I'm willing to pay the price for a good weekend anyway.

Sad News, Good Memories

My Cousin Harold

Got news last night that my cousin Harold has been diagnosed with lung cancer that has metastisized to his lymph nodes. Not a good diagnosis. He has started treatment hoping to reduce the size of the tumor that is causing him a lot of pain. He is having difficulty breathing, which can be very scary. Harold is probably around 61 years old, but I don't think of him as being that age.

I remember Harold as he was in high school, working at the dimestore soda fountain giving me a coca cola made from real coca cola syrup and fizzy water in a tiny little coca cola glass. I remember him giving me rides on a bicycle down to where the railroad tracks crossed the road near my grandparents house. I remember him driving me and my fifty million other small cousins to see movies at the nearest movie theatre that was fifteen miles away, packed three or four deep, oldest to the youngest, on the bench seats of his father's car. I remember sending goody boxes to him when he was in the infantry in Vietnam. I remember his kindness to all of his myriad cousins and his joy about being a father. I remember his patience at still being called Little Harold even when his uncle Harold had passed away 20 years ago!

I am saddened, worried about him and his family and his brothers Don Ralph and Bob, hoping that he will be the one in a million to have remission. I work with a gentleman that had a similar diagnosis with inoperable lung cancer and survived to be cancer free, so I know it happens. I pray it will happen to my cousin. Please keep him and his family in your prayers.