Where are my ruby slippers!

About a month ago, maybe a little more, my little sister had what the doctors called a mini stroke.

She is only 28.

This upset me more than you may guess.

I started looking harder for family members.

I called mom and dad more than I had in months or longer.

It scared the shit out of me.

I have always lived my life in the moment. If you remember previous posts, you know why I didn't dwell on the past.

This is also the reason I never looked to the future. Having your self esteem beaten to a pulp will do that to you.

Anyway...

My family has always meant the world to me and many of them may not know it.

I want them to know it now.

For years I have always wondered if anyone missed me after we moved to Texas.

If you have known me for a long time and you know my family, then you know that my family is enormous on both my mom and my dads side.

We used to get together a lot when I was a kid and have holiday parties. We would spend the night at each others houses, mostly me at theirs from what I remember.

I remember always having fun and being happy.

:)

I started last Sunday trying to find some cousins.

[Remember I have not seen most of them in over 20+ years.]

I saw some FB pages and I wasn't sure. Then I finally just typed in the B last name and paged through all of them.

600+ on FB

And there he was! In a profile pic of a woman who's last name started with B. He looked exactly like my Uncles, I sent a message taking a chance and introducing myself.

Then I found another cousin... and another!

The B family was coming out of the woodwork!

I left messages for all of them and went to bed.

The next morning as is my ritual before work I made a cup of coffee, took the dog out, grabbed the laptop and pulled up FB.

1 New Message!

It was from the woman's FB account whom I said had a man in the pic with her who looked like family. I opened it and it was from not her but my cousin K.

Excitement filled me as I read that indeed we are related and he gave me his phone numbers. He said he hoped to hear from me soon.

Quickly I messaged him back and provided my number as well.

I went on to work in a much better mood than I have been in awhile.

When I came home from work there was another message from another cousin! And yes she had missed me too and wondered how me and my brothers and sister were doing.

I went to the search area and popped in the C family name and found more cousins that night. As the week went on I heard from more and more cousins that I had not talked to in forever!

Thursday afternoon my phone rang and it was my cousin K, we talked for almost an hour. It was a pleasure catching up on everyone and everything going on in our large B family.

[Nearly an hour on the phone? Surprising because I do not like talking on the phone. A hazard of working in a call center.]

The moral of this story is:

• Don't ever think you have not put a mark on someones memory.

In one way or another every person you have met will remember you.

• Family is number one and the most important part of who we are, don't ever let them go.

and it's true...

"There's no place like home."