Cousins

When I was 12, my aunt and uncle asked me to babysit my cousin, who was a toddler. It was my first babysitting job away from home, and I was terribly nervous. What was thrilling about it, however, was that they had a television, and we didn't have one. My parents didn't believe that television offered anything more important than books and outdoor play, so they had resisted the siren call of easy entertainment since before I was born. Thus, the idea of being able to sit and choose whatever I wanted to watch after I'd successfully put my cousin into bed for the night was very exciting. My younger brother was so jealous he begged to come with me, and since I was nervous and apprehensive about being a babysitter at someone else's house, I brought him along for moral support. Happily, my cousin was just fine, and Robert and I got some tube time.

Over the next few years, my aunt and uncle had two more children, and I continued to babysit (though being able to watch television wasn't nearly as novel once my parents relented and bought a set). They moved from the area when their youngest, a boy, was still a toddler, and their oldest was seven. Since that time, I've watched them grow up through pictures sent in letters and Christmas cards. I went to college and then to another country to serve a mission and got married and started having kids and missed all the family get-togethers where I would have been able to see them again.

Yesterday was the first time in over 20 years that I got to be in the same room with these cousins. The oldest, who is my brother Aaron's age, is all grown up and married, pregnant with her second child and a loving mother to her sweet little girl (who immediately adopted Elannah as her very own). Her sister is also all grown up, and their youngest brother now towers over me at 6' 4". The younger two are happy in their career choices, though they have yet to find "the one" and take the marriage plunge. Good looking kids, all. Their mother, my aunt, is also radiant and beautiful. She hardly looks older than her daughters.

I don't have many cousins -- just 10. My mom has three sisters and my dad was an only child. I still haven't seen one set of cousins since I was in my teens, and we aren't close only because of age differences and the fact that we were always so spread apart geographically. Fortunately, the one cousin who is close to my age (one year younger) is my friend on Facebook and we continue to keep in contact.

This post won't be interesting to anyone except me, but I wanted to document the occasion for future recall. Key memories: the park with Subway lunch; a lovely walk with cousins by the river; keeping Little Gary from falling into said river; and frisbee contests.