From A Distance

When I was younger I always knew that I had cousins on my father's side that I never met and probably never would. Not because they lived far away just because there was so many of them, since my father had 7 brothers and 2 sisters and most of the brothers had a lot of kids and many of them were divorced. I saw a few of them once or twice but not on a regular basis and I knew that when they grew up and had kids of their own that I would probably not see them either. It made me sad but that was the way it was back then. There was no facebook, no video chatting, no skype, etc..it was if you didn't go to their house or they didn't come to yours then you just didn't see them. So, I possibly have 100 cousins or more that I haven't seen. I know of one family reunion that they had about 9 years ago or so. I didn't go because I found out at the very last second and that was by accident. I happened to be visiting my uncle at the time, he doesn't live far from me but ironically, we hardly ever see each other unless we run into each other on the street somewhere like a grocery store or something. But, this was at a time when our family was going through some things and the events of the things had brought my uncle, my mom and me together for a meeting. I hadn't even seen his grown kids in about 20 years when they were small. His kids were there at his house where we were meeting and we talked but after that I never talked to them again. He had told me that he was reunion bound to Los Angeles that weekend and that he had only learned about it about a month before from his sister, my aunt, who had apparently went to quite a few that only she knew about according to him. He rattled off a few names of some "famous" folks that were supposed to be related to us. And his eyes lite up at the possibility of meeting them.I sort of doubted that they would come but there was a small chance that he would meet someone famous. 

Fast forward to present time. A year ago my nephew and his wife had a baby boy. They live in Los Angeles about an hour plane ride from my house if that and a few hours on a train, drive time would be about 8 hours if that, the way he drives probably 6. So, after many promises of bringing my grand nephew up this way to see his family including my mom who is his great grandmother, he has yet to materialize. I keep telling him it is not like we are in a different country and my mom is not in the best of health as he knows so it would be a good thing to bring his now toddler to see her at least as soon as possible. We have been watching him grow through pictures sent to various family members phones at random times throughout the year, through pictures posted on Facebook, and through videos posted on Facebook. It is like watching someone grow up long distance except the distance is not long at all. 

Kevin, is my mom's first great grandson and my sisters first grandchild. He is over a year old now, just celebrated his first birthday not long ago. We don't know if he had a "party" there was only one post of him on Facebook with cake on his face with his uncle holding him. My sister sent him a belated gift since her hopes of seeing him before his birthday were dashed a few months ago when he was supposed to come but something always happens and he doesn't. I told my sister that he is a Los Angeles baby. Athough, my nephew was born and raised in Northern CA he went to Los Angeles right after graduation from high school and never looked back. She nodded her head in agreement and with that we turned to look at Kevin's mom facebook page for more pictures and she texted her oldest son and asked for more pictures of her little grandson. 

I must say that watching someone grow up from a distance really sucks when you don't really have to.