Long Lost Cousin

I just love finding long lost family.

My cousin, Michelle, called me this evening, asking if she could borrow my vacuum cleaner. Hers is on the blitz, so I had my son throw it in the car and ran it over to her.

She's not really my cousin, by all points and purposes. We've known each other since we were younger. Her aunt is married to my uncle. So that makes my uncle her uncle. Makes her aunt my aunt. It isn't a blood thing, more of a marriage situation.

We still claim each other anyway. We're just a few months apart in ages. There are other commonalities as well.

Many years ago I happened to move to this area. For a brief period of time we actually worked for the same employer. Then she left because she was getting ready to get married and move away.

That was almost twenty years ago. We lost contact with each other. That is until last year.

My son and I (Mom too) flew to Houston last summer for my cousin's wedding. This is the daughter of my aunt and uncle. This is the daughter of Michelle's aunt and uncle. Aw heck, you get the drift. Needless to say, Michelle and I were thrilled to see each other again at the mini family reunion/wedding weekend extravaganda.

Her daughter was a senior and my son was getting ready to start high school. Funny thing was, when those two started talking with each other we discovered something astonishing.

Her daughter and my son were going to the same school. Michelle had never gotten married and had never moved away from the area and was living in my town. My town was her town. Her town was my town. How had we never run into each other?

It made me sick to think that we'd shared the same community for thirteen years without even knowing it. All that lost time. All those missed opportunities.

We decided that God had brought us back into contact at that particular moment for a reason. Here she was a single mother too, just like me. She'd also made the decision to put off dating until her daughter was raised, just like me.

Plus it was so nice to know that I wasn't without "family" up here. We get together as often as feasible, go to lunch, run around or just hang out at the house and watch movies or play card games. She even watched my son for me when I had to go out of town last fall.

Cause families help each other out, don't ya know.