Prompt
# 62 – Blood and Water
My
parents are dead, I have no children, and my brothers live thousands
of kilometres away in Manitoba and Florida. My nearest relatives live
two or three hours away and I see them once a year if I am lucky. I
have more than 50 first cousins. One cousin, Marge, has become closer
in the last few years. We keep in touch by notes, e-mail, FB, and
visits. Our parents were close. Also a cousin, Wilma (really a cousin
of my father's, but my age) sought me out and we keep in touch over
the phone, and maybe meet for coffee or lunch once a year. I guess
one of the joys about relatives is that we get to know these people
who we would otherwise never meet, we live such different lives.
Friends are precious and I've never had a large number at any one time. However, as the years accumulate, so do old friends. My best friend from high school lives in Calgary and we talk about twice a year (birthdays) and visit much less frequently. My best friend from work forty years ago still lives in Winnipeg and we write or call once or twice a year. I still have contact with several people I socialized with in other lives - university, work, even former students, and former homestay students, on FB, which is good as otherwise I would never know where they are or what they are doing. Locally my friends have mostly been from groups I've attended – writing, art, genealogy, photography, Scrabble. Which I guess means we share interests and passions. Two of these friends moved away, Marilyn to Port Moody, Leina to Salt Spring Island, but we still keep in touch. They have both visited me here since they left.
I appreciate friends and I realize that I am poorly skilled at seeking out friendships or even at maintaining regular contact. So I have to rely on friends being more aggressive than I am at keeping in touch. I am blessed.
Leina
Marilyn
Carol
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