Bridging the Gap between Family through Facebook

Man Cub aka Christopher, me, my cousin and Papa Bear

It’s been a long month since the last fourth Thursday Photo Share. Last month I wrote about being the first grandchild and a memory from one of the summers I spent with my grandparents.

In the picture above, standing next to me is my youngest first cousin, the last grandchild. He was born the year after I graduated from high school.

I’m old enough to be his mother.

I’ve been on an off of facebook over the years taking breaks to silence politics and sad news, but I always come back for family (the graduations, the weddings, the babies and the puppies). Facebook has been wonderful for bridging the gap with my family which is stretched far and wide across the United States and sometimes overseas.

I kept in touch with facebook as we left (evacuated) from North Carolina to visit friends in Ohio. My cousin, who currently lives in New York, texted me to say he was going to be in Ohio for business and wondered how long we’d be there. When he first texted, I didn’t think we’d still be in Ohio by the time he got there but we were. He was two hours away and rearranged his lodging and flight out the next morning to come see me and meet my family.

I hadn’t seen him in seventeen years since we were at our grandfather’s funeral. He was just a little boy, a year younger than Christopher is now. Now he’s a husband, a new father, and a business traveler.

I had cooked dinner and dessert and it was ready by the time he got there. We ate and sat around and talked and laughed for a few hours before he had to go. It really warmed my heart that he rearranged his itinerary to come to us, closing the gap.

Update: Thank you to all who commented on my last couple of posts with your thoughts and prayers. We came back home this past Monday to absolutely NO DAMAGE on the inside of the house. I had so many sleepless nights worrying. When I opened the doors to the house and then each room, everything was as we left it. Our neighborhood as a whole faired well. Others, not so much. As of now school is still out and the next date to hope for their return is October 8th.

This was a Share a Photo/Tell the Story Friday post. It's the Week 4 old school blogging prompt for the Finish the Sentence Friday writing community where I'm co-hosting with Kristi Campbell of Finding Ninee. 

Join us for next week's FTSF prompt where we will finish the Sentence, "A reality I’d like to change is..."