Cousins

I have always been intrigued that when Mary, the mother of Jesus, found out that she was pregnant she went through the hill country to stay with her cousin Elizabeth. And, also, when Jesus was ready to start his ministry he went to his cousin John to be baptized. Cousins seemed important in the early stories of Jesus.

This week I spent Monday, my day off, in the “bosom of my family”! My 89 year old Aunt died. She had experienced a brief illness and spent her last month in the hospital, the very hospital where she had been born and where she birthed her four babies. We gathered at the little rural church where she worshipped for decades and the crowd filled the pews and spilled into the basement. Her boys spoke lovingly of their mom and her grandchildren shed many tears. She was deeply loved and will be sincerely missed but consolation comes from the fact that she had a good, long life and by her own admission felt ready to discover what lay ahead for her in the next life. We buried her ashes in the church graveyard and then went to the local community hall for the obligatory funeral sandwiches.

It was a rich and wonderful ritual from beginning to end as we said farewell to the one we loved so. However, the moment that I will hold in my memory is when I stood in a small circle with 4 cousins and we had a group hug! These cousins I have not seen since the last funeral that we gathered for but it was like we had been together forever as we giggled in the same way we did when we were ten. We remembered together our aunt’s favourite sayings, times we spent holidaying at one another’s house, who was the oldest and the youngest and on and on.

I have been spoiled compared to many people I have met along the way. Each of my parents were the eldest in their family and each had 5 siblings. That means I had 20 aunts and uncles and, if I am remembering them all, 37 first cousins. I can’t begin to count second and third cousins. I remember forming a friendship with a classmate in university. She could not believe how many family I had. She had her parents and one brother, that was it. I was astounded she had so few relatives while she was astounded at my many.

Family, cousins, relatives, can be a great comfort at times such as Monday’s funeral when we just needed to be together to mourn and cry, to laugh and remember. It also gave me an insight into why, when in a patch of trouble, Mary would run to Elizabeth for support and, when ready to launch into something new, Jesus would seek out his cousin John to get a ‘high five’!

I love my cousins.