Well as if on cue… I was sorry to hear story about your cousin. Sounds like he had a hard life. Seems too that you are close to your cousins. Me not so much. My dad’s clan was from upstate NY and my mom’s folks were Hoosiers. Ohio was a nice in between place that allowed for occasional visits. Mostly us visiting them. I think I counted last night I had 24 or so first cousins, though Ancestry.com tells me one family group are second cousins… Hmm. At any rate we were never that close, and certainly aren’t now, but I did have a favorite cousin. On my mom’s side. Barbie, or now Barbara since he is all grown up. We are the same age and when we would visit them in Rockville, Indiana, we would off to her room and talk about art and listen to Simon and Garfunkel. We both went off to art schools in college. But she dropped out, got married and we lost touch. We began communicating several years ago. She’s big on snail mail and phone calls. I wish she like emailing. To the point… I got thinking about cousins after I read your note and wondered what it must be like to be close to your cousins. I will never know. But when I left the studio, back to the house, Carter gave me some mail. And there was a letter from Barbie. Just saying hi really. But she also enclosed a copy of a letter my mother had written to her mother in 2008. My mom was reminiscing about their childhood in rural Indiana. The letter was among the stuff left when my aunt died and found it’s way to Anne, Barbie’s older sister. Anne mailed 2 copies to Barbie. Barbie sent “Mel’s copy” to me. It arrived on my mom’s birthday. So that was sweet. I too, felt grateful to be in that space, at that moment.
