I grew up with two cousins, an uncle, and an aunt.
Ellen grew up with infinite cousins, uncles, and aunts. In addition, distance of cousins (first, second, third, removed, etc.) is not much of a consideration in her family. The only exception is going through the common ritual of diagramming the family tree to each other.
By pure chance we ran into Ellen’s cousin Susan while visiting her cousin Barbara in Eugene, Oregon several weeks ago. By coincidence, her son Rogan lives in Soquel. If this sounds familiar, it is because Ellen’s brother Tim, with our daughter Blakey, are also living in Soquel, maybe three miles from Tim.
Rogan’s daughter Katherine was having her first birthday and baptism, so there was a reunion. We were invited to the Halloween night pre-baptism barbecue.
It was fun to get to know more relatives. I particularly enjoyed Rogan and his dad Patrick, who are well-beyond-amateur photographers. Got some great tips. Thanks guys!
Cannot tell you how much Marcus laughed at your description of the cousins in our family…he has often remarked at this particular quality of how my mom and I talk about cousins, distance being of no importance 😉