While reading the local newspaper on Friday I was surprised to see someone who shared my great aunt’s name in the obituaries. First, being that the last name is fairly unusual and second that I wasn’t aware I had a relative the next town over. I texted two of my cousins to see if they could ask their dads if it may be a relation. I called my Mom to ask her but as it was a name on my Dad’s side of the family and Dad will have been deceased now nineteen years she wasn’t one hundred percent sure it was a relative but she did not think so. One of my cousins suggested I call an aunt who may know. The hunt was on for me.

My parents were both born in Maryland as was I but I was raised in Massachusetts. Both sets of grandparents lived in Baltimore as did my parents, many aunts, uncles and cousins. Growing up and finding out more of my families history I discovered that my maternal grandmother was raised here on the shore and my great great grandfather built boats for fishing on the bay. I’ve been able to locate the names of his boats but none survive to this day. I also found when I moved here after college that my some of my fathers side of the family also had been raised on the shore. A distant relative of my dad’s sent info of the different cemeteries that family members were in. Some of the locations I was familiar with but others like so many cemeteries of old are on private property or are family plots of two or three graves you really have to know where to look.

I called my aunt tonight and had a lovely chat with her. She believes this woman may have been related by marriage but wasn’t familiar with the names listed in the obituary. It was nice to talk with her and to hear someone speak of my dad. She grew up with my dad. Sometimes people don’t like to speak of relatives who are gone but I still miss my dad even though it has been so many years since he has been here. I enjoy when people share their memories of my dad and my grandparents. I often wonder what my dad would think of my life, my pet sitting business, being a supervisor at my other job and this blog. I think he would like the blog. He always wanted me to write I just don’t think he would have imagined it in this medium. I am looking forward to seeing my aunt. I hope to see her in a few weeks.

I took all the pictures while walking through town last week with Cooper the lab. The top picture is in the center of my town. It is of an inn and a church in the distance. The next picture is the silos in town. The third picture is looking up one of the main streets in town though we don’t have a street named “Main.” The bottom picture is taken along on of the alleys where an old rail line used to run. I liked the view of the home as we walked away towards where Cooper lived.

One thing I learned from this experience of looking to see if this was a relative is how in part of my grieving and coping the death of my dad all those years ago I realized I had inadvertently shut out parts of my family that would have provided a connection I had sought but had not realized. Hindsight is twenty twenty.