What a Wonderful Weekend

 What a wonderful weekend!

On Friday I had dinner with two of my cousins. None of us are siblings. All cousins. After a wonderful dinner, one cousin stated that she had a box of photos to share. They had belonged to her mom, who sadly passed away 18 months ago. 

This aunt was the first to come to Canada. She was also the eldest child of my grandmother. She had 5 older siblings from my grandfather (her father) who spoiled her senseless as a young child. 

That informed her generosity to others. It was to her home that everyone immigrating from Scotland flocked. She housed them, fed them and helped them until they were able to find a job and accommodation of their own. Because she had maintained such strong relationships with the older siblings she left behind, and of course with her mother, she received countless photographs of her younger siblings, nieces and nephews as they were growing up. And those incredible treasures were what were in the box of photos. 

This isn't the first box of photos my cousin has so willingly shared. She was incredibly generous just after her mom passed away and those memories have been shared and treasured by all of us. These wonderful, warm emotions that the photos evoke have helped once again to deepen the connection between the generations. 

I had the honour of bringing the photos home to scan and to share. What a wonderful weekend. So many emotions. So many debts of gratitude expressed. 

So many of my cousins were seeing photos of themselves as children for the very first time. Back 50+ years ago, no one had extra copies of photos made and so the only copy in existence was in that box of treasures. 

Again, thanks to the generosity of my cousin, these photos will be returned to those who are in them. These wonderful treasures have once again helped us realize just how blessed we are to belong to this big open family. We are connected and that grounds us, comforts us and gives us strength. 

How was your weekend?