In the past I would try to catch up with family who might be available for a visit and one person I have seen over the past couple of years is Cousin John. John Meyerhoff is the eldest son of my mother's next oldest sister. Aunt Margaret was the middle girl in the family. Here we are in Punta Gorda in 2012.This year we met at a car dealer's in Plant City, John, Mary Carol and I, and took a short road trip while his car was being worked on.
This road trip involves another cousin ... actually a 'first cousin once removed' would be the correct term. Bob Jonsson is the son of our first cousin Richard Jonsson ... and he is the eldest son of 'our mothers' eldest sister Edna Johnson.
Bob and his wife Nancy moved to Florida this fall after retiring from 40 years of ministry. They are living about a half hour drive from Plant City ..... so I got this brain wave ... why don't John, Mary Carol and I go visit Bob and Nancy while the car gets fixed ... and that is how it worked out.
The three of us piled into my little white Kia Soul and took off for parts unknown to us all ... and had lots of fun finding Bob and Nancy.
We determined, during the course of the visit, that we three cousins had not been TOGETHER for about 22 years ... since Bob's grandfather's 90th birthday celebration in 1993! I don't think any of us remembered the others being there ... just that we were all there at the same event.
Lots of heavy traffic on I-4 but we got the car out of hock, filled mine with gas, filled our stomachs again with food [at Denny's restaurant], and headed to our separate homes.
Family ... what are the ties that bind? why were we so pleased to have been able to spend time with people we hardly knew, but who we really know very well???
I don't know the answers to these questions.... just that this is what happened one wonderful day in November in Florida.
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