A Surprise Phone Call

My phone rang last night and in a blink of an eye, I had a new cousin...at least I think that's how she's related to me! Her name is Kay (she said that's what family call her and now I'm family). She's the granddaughter of my mom's eldest half-sister, Lucille. She's doing geneology research and remembered my name from a letter she received in 1999 from my mom. She was very sad that mom passed away in 2000 and isn't around to help her as she searches for the family story. I can't tell you how wonderful it was to hear Kay speak about my beautiful mother and how much she appreciated being in contact with her. Evidently Kay actually stayed with us a few days when we lived in Fullerton; I was 12 yrs old at the time and obviously a self-absorbed pre-teen because I don't remember her visit at all! It was a bad time in Kay's life and my mom was very kind to her. My mom was kind to everyone and always wanted to help folks, so this doesn't surprise me one bit. We talked about family, what we both remember from the stories our moms told us. As a kid, I remember sitting around the dinner table long after we'd finished eating, and my mom would entertain us with her stories...stories of murders and bodies in the Okefenokee swamp and 'haints' and bad signs, of bodies laid out in the parlor for visitation and crosses burned on the lawns of sinners. Oh, how I wish I'd written those stories down before she died!! I sent Kay all the geneology stuff that I got last fall from Zane. Funny, huh? You go for years with no extended family and then within 6 months, you have two new cousins!