Wednesday, August 26, 2020

The Joy of Finding Family

 August 26, 2020
Tombstone, Arizona

Recent changes to Blogger have changed the font size options leaving me without what I found to be the perfect size that was between this new "too large" and the much smaller "not normal for me" .

My last post looks like it was designed for a large print book and rather silly. Feels like I'm yelling at you! Since we are now often referring to the "new normal" of our lives, I suppose opting for the new Normal for my font is appropriate. 

Hardly on the scale of pandemics, civil rights battles, political corruption, fires, power outages and hurricanes, this latest 2020 blogger-font-size crisis will likely not be life changing for anyone :)

We don't need anything else!

I've once again gotten caught up reading posts from my Blog Roll, catching up on what our friends are up to. What a different world most of us are experiencing. Thankfully no one is sick, everyone is safe. Most are stationary. Many are in sticks and bricks, either permanently or part time. Those in Europe are each having different experiences.

How uplifting to see what others are doing! Funny that we all think we're not doing anything of interest to others, yet I find it's my interest in the individuals themselves that makes reading their posts such a delight. We haven't spent a lot of time with most of these travel friends (some more than others), a couple we've not met, and yet all have been a big part of my life for years. Who knew that distant friends would become the norm for all of us?!

Distant family makes us sad as we're missing those grand babies, but a couple months ago I found some of my family which has made me very happy!

I have a small family - Mom had one brother who had one son. Dad had a sister with no children and a brother with two sons. My 3 cousins and I saw a lot of each other when we were little then we moved to the desert of SoCal and I rarely saw them. My mom's nephew Tracy and I stayed in touch and he helped me move in 2001. After high school I lost touch with the other two, only seeing Steven once in 1998. David had moved to the northwest and even changed his last name to his mother's maiden name.

As an only child myself my sons have no cousins from my family. Neither Tracy nor Steven had children so the only other "next generation" are David's two children. 

Aaaanyway, back in 2017 I looked for my cousins on Facebook (although I knew that Steven and Tracy were very unlikely to have a social media presence). Somehow I found a woman who I thought was David's spouse although she had a different last name. I sent her a message. Nothing.

Fast forward to May 2020 and a response pops up!! Yes, she is David's spouse and now David has his own FB page so we become Friends and poof!! Family :-) 

Steven sits while David and I are held by Grandpa George - 1956


Me, Steven and David with our older grands - I still remember that wallpaper!

Since I was already working on photo albums, I had old family photos at my fingertips. Sharing them with David and his family is such a joy. His parents divorced in the 70's and his dad (my Uncle Johnnie) passed a few years later. My mother was with his when she lost her battle with cancer in the early '80's. Most of the photos I have he's never seen, and of course are a glimpse of that long ago time that he can now share with his wife and family. 

Not long after we reconnected, David received his dad's war diary in the mail from a woman who has had it since she was little girl and somehow found David after all this time. Wow!! Uncle Johnnie never talked about those years with his boys so he's hoping to learn more about who his father was. And I have my dad's photo album from those years - with photos of Johnnie and their friends. Our hope is that some of the photos will show people he references in the diary and we'll both have a more complete history! It's all very exciting.

Handsome Uncle Johnnie


I'm grateful Dad saved so many pics of his brother for his
son to enjoy all these years later.

Even better, they live Washington, in an area we love to visit, so next summer we'll be able to get caught up in person. Steven is in Salt Lake City and I'm hopeful we can add him to the reunion. I know our parents are happy we're finally getting the family back together!

At a time in our lives when we're disconnected from most people it is such a gift to have made this connection. To find how much David and I have in common, to feel that blood tie even from 1600 miles away, to know there is another generation with the opportunity to call each other family. I didn't realize the void was there until it was once again filled. 

The fires in Colorado and New Mexico are sharing their smoke with Southern Arizona making our hot days hazy and unpleasant. Fortunately we don't have the smell or the ash, just the blurred views. Arizona has its own fires but the winds seem to be sending "our" smoke to other places. Our kids are away from the current California devastation so we're grateful they are out of harm's way. My BFF posted a pic of the Sacramento skies they're contending with, just awful!!

Dangerous air quality for everyone in Saramento.


We're seriously considering a two week trip to the Santa Fe area the first week of October to get the wheels rolling on the motorhome and give us a much needed adventure. I'll start looking for reservations this weekend to see if it's feasible, then keep an eye on how the COVID numbers look where we want to be.

Just the thought of planning a route, even with restricted "go-sees", is very exciting :-)))) 

Since I've decided to add additional window coverings in the bedroom the "big reveal" is postponed (for those of you who only opened the post to see a pretty bedroom, I apologize).

I'm confident you are all doing well, and making the best of these "troubling times" - keep posting and commenting so we can all see how much or little you're doing!


What Tessa dreams about these days!




20 comments:

  1. How wonderful that your family is re-connecting! It's nice that you weren't aware of the void being without them caused until that void was so warmly filled. -Mary

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    1. Well said Mary :-) once filled, it becomes a lovely piece of life.

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  2. Thank you for sharing the lovely story about reconnecting with family you hadn't seen in so long. It's ironic that should happen during a pandemic when we are all kept so far apart. It is so much fun to plan on getting the wheels rolling. I find myself dreaming about an even doing some temporary planning not for this winter but for next winter when hopefully things will be whatever The New normal is. Since I haven't done my now monthly post I haven't run into the new font problem but I do see that you have an anonymous comment and I don't see those anymore. What I get are unknown comments and they are all very sexually explicit. I've been trying for several months to get the attention of bloggers to do something about this so I'm wondering why we are having such different experiences with the same platform?

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    1. I too had some of those nasty comments but when I get the notice on my email it gives me the option to report as spam and delete. I haven't had any in a long time now. Hope you can get rid of yours too!! We're hoping to start real travels again in April to NOT be here for next summer. Hopeful the lowering numbers will continue in the right direction and that will be possible!

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  3. Great to hear from you Jodie! I guess I agree that it's the little things that friends are doing that are so good to read about these days. "Interesting" is relative now, isn't it!

    I, for one, vote for the larger font on your blog. (hmmm, you probably weren't asking for opinions were you - my family tells me that I often offer opinions when they haven't been solicited) The smaller printing on the black background makes is hard for me to read.
    Don't want to miss a thing ya know!

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    1. Interesting is so different for me these days :-)))

      Well how are we ever going to know how people react if they don't share an opinion ?! I too find the smaller more difficult. I'll keep playing with it (not like I have a busy schedule to accommodate)

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  4. Sounds like you are being productive and staying busy Jodee. I have a kazillion photos on the computer and have promised Joe to weed through them...it’s quite time consuming! And I can only do it for awhile and have to stop. I’m so “lost”, I don’t have any idea about what is happening on blogger except that you and Sue say it is changing. I sure hope it is user friendly. Totally agree...planning a trip is exciting. Santa Fe sounds perfect!

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    1. Sometimes I think about getting all my saved photos labeled (fortunately they're in monthly folders so the dates are covered), but just the thought is so overwhelming that I never start. Bill has an external hard drive where they all get stored so they're off the computer, but still......maybe tomorrow?

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  5. One of my lost cousins showed up a few years ago with photos his mom inherited from our grandma so I know how you are feeling at finding these connections. I'm happy for you to have this experience!

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    1. Thanks Linda and how fun that you've had a similar reunion!! A great opportunity to learn things we never knew about our own history.

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  6. I'm so glad you are posting again--I've missed you! Your finding family story is sooooo cool! Mike is one of those only children and his mom was an only child. While I have aunts and uncles still living and so, so many cousins, Michael's extended family is composed of three cousins and four second cousins--that's it. Glad you guys are thinking about getting out and about. Please know you are always welcome here in Montana too--we have a very safe spot with electric hookups.

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    1. I too get to enjoy Bill's bigger family which has been wonderful the last 12 years.

      We'd love to visit that area again - and this time to spend some time at your lovely piece of heaven! Fingers crossed next year will make it possible :-)

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  7. How exciting to make contact with lost family members. It will be so neat to catch up in person...one day!! Thanks for sharing the old photos and the background. Go ahead and plan your trip. You can always cancel is how I look at it. Getting reservations can be tough at the last minute. Good to know you are all doing well. Take care.

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    1. Started making the plan - so fun - and the first three places I tried to make reservations I have to wait until at least November. One I even have to wait until April :-( But it's still fun to have a map routed again!!

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  8. Such a joy to read about your reconnections with family! Same wit old school mate. Safe travels.

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    1. Thanks! It's been so much fun getting caught up.

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  9. Ohhh.....Santa Fe!!! It's still one of our all-time favorite places that we've visited in our travels. I think we've been there six times in the past 10 years. And I want to go again. October will be beautiful! No beaches there for Tessa, so she will have to keep dreaming for a while. :)


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    1. It was on our short list but the housing costs and high winds took it out. Still, we love, love it!! It's a bonus for Tombstone that it's so close to Santa Fe :-)))

      I keep promising her we'll spend next summer on the coast. Right now she'd be happy with grass......

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  10. His wonderful to be back in touch with family! What a treasure during these times. I am woefully behind on my blog. I also hate the new Blogger changes. It’s been especially hard for me to post with the changes to my computer software, Bligger and YouTube. And not the best internet. Since I want to keep my dates as actual dates, that prevents my blog posts from being on “the role” I think they only show to those who signed up on email. I’ll keep plugging along though!

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    1. Yes, your posts don't update properly but I do thankfully get your notifications in my email. Our Internet is "usually" okay, but can get frustratingly slow :-( This was an especially great time to find my cousin - really boosted my spirits :-)

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