My horse loving cousin V came to visit the last 10 days. As you may have gathered from the heading, she's not from these here parts. My dad was born and raised in England and emigrated here with his first wife in his late 20s early 30s. He subsequently divorced her and married my mom (there's really no scandal here despite the fact that my mom was a rural farm girl and he was the dashing muttonchopped debonair older man from abroad.) They produced two daughters 10 years apart. Meanwhile his younger brother stayed in England and married a Geordie and they also produced 2 daughters, who are only 2 years apart.
My cousins and I were always aware of eachother growing up and we had random visits throughout our childhoods. They came here once when I was very young while our grandmother was living here and we visited them a bunch of times, less so after my sister was born. It was always family vacation though...until last year when my husband and I visited England on our own. We stayed with the youngest of my cousins as she is the closest in age to us and is single and lives in a beautiful home by herself. We had a fabulous time with her and invited her to stay with us whenever she wanted. Before we knew it she had booked a ticket for October! It's been really fun to get to know her as an adult and create memories that don't include me biting her finger which is her one outstanding memory from the last time she traveled here when she was 9 and I was 5. Perhaps she'd been eating salt and vinegar crisps and I was hungry?
Anyway, carniverousness and cannibalism aside, we had another great visit. We visited my sister in Kentucky, introduced her to the Cheesecake Factory, went to Hocking Hills to hike and even squeezed in a trip to the races, a boat ride and a horse ride. I think these visits in our 30s will pave the way for a closer family in our later years. My parents and hers have always been the glue that bound us together across the pond and I think it's really neat that we're creating our own glue so that when our parents are gone (hopefully no time soon) we will still be able to visit and be comfortable with eachother.
I *heart* family.
1 comment:
How fun for you guys!!! I've always been interested about your connection with England. Very cool!!!
I really like that a few of my cousins and I have a close relationship. The other ones still treat my sister and I like little kids since we are about 10-15 years younger. But the other two it's fun to have an adult friendship with them.
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