You're at Tahoe? I'm jealous, jealous, I say!!

The last month or so has been a little dramatic for me. Since last summer, my bride and I have been doing a lot of research into my father's family. Two weeks ago, we went to a family reunion with a group of cousins. We met in Mobile, Alabama, because it was where our grandparents lived and are buried, and where several of our parents were born 80-90 years ago, and it was a central location for the lot of us. I met two cousins I had never met before (at 60, I'm the youngest in the group) and saw several others I hadn't seen in 30-40 years. It was a fun two days.

One cousin, to make a long story short, was estranged from the rest of us since childhood and was one who I had never met until last fall. Her father, a World War II veteran of the Burma campaign, died in 1949, when she was very young. His mother (our grand mother) was given the flag from his casket. When she passed away in 1969, it went to my father. When my father died it passed to my mother, and it came to me when she died five years ago. Two weeks ago, I had the honor of giving her the flag that was on her father's casket when he was buried in sixty-one years ago. It was an emotional moment for all of us.