Family divisions

I just returned from what has become an annual family reunion. More specifically, it’s mostly a first cousins reunion… the grandchildren of Fred and Nellie Beard. My first cousins grew up in a divided family, so many of us didn’t know each other despite living with 20 miles or so. No need to go into why our parents ended up divided, but we’ve tried to get back together and make up for family we should have had and didn’t. We range in age, right now, from 69 (me) to 45. Truth is, we have tried to determine why the division stood all those years, and we are determined to get past whatever the roots of the division were.

It has been delightful getting to know those “missing” first cousins, and we’re all aware now of some of what we missed in not knowing each other all those years. We are all mostly now in our 60’s, but when I look at them, I see the kids in the photos that were my only memories of them, and some of our chatter is as if we were still kids getting acquainted.

There are still a couple of first cousins, younger and living far away, who haven’t participated yet, but hopefully we’ll bring them into the group next year. My oldest daughter attended this year too, but her interest is a bit different; I’m an only child who married an only child, so our daughters (2) have no aunts, uncles or first cousins. They’ll have to settle for first cousins once removed or 2nd cousins. We first cousins can make that happen if we get demanding with our own children. One day a year is not much to spend to pull together ones extended family. Most of them will someday wish they knew each other; we first cousins should press for those connections to be made as soon as possible. Believe it or not, relatives are at least as interesting as the friends we all make in our non-family lives. Why ignore them while we’re networking with hundreds of others? We already have a built-in connection with them to begin with.