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I'm going to visit my cousin, Kessach, today.  Actually, she is my second cousin; daughter of Zadia, the oldest living of the sixteen first cousins of the Sommer (Dad's) side of my family.  We lost Cyndee, the oldest,  in 2005, I think it was, to a stroke.  Two of the boys, Gordon and Jim, both Vietnam veterans, are gone.  Gordie killed in a auto accident, Christmas Day, 1995 while driving to my house.  Jim had health issues he did not always share with us.   We believe he had cancer, but just wouldn't tell us.  He died the same year as Sonny, 2002, only at the end of the year, in November. 

Kessach is only  12 years younger than me.  ZeeZee, as we called Zadia as kids, would babysit my older sister and I when she was in high school.  She drove us the 12 miles to town, always in my Mother's 1960 Ford,  for swimming lessons at the town pool.  She taught us to dance every Saturday  watching **** Clark's American Bandstand.  She is funny and spontaneous.  She was selected Most Humorous of her graduating class of 1963.  I would earn the same honor when I graduated ten years later.  She ran errands for my Mother and Dad.   If a piece of machinery on the farm broke and Dad needed a part from town, he would get ZeeZee to run to town and Georgianna and I would almost always get to ride along.  She was an older sister figure to us.  Her daughter,  Kessach, now 42, and I have always been close.

When I got out of school and took a job in Huntington, it was near where Zadia and Grover were raising their family.   I moved in with them for a few weeks until I could apartment hunt for something of my own.  It was a great experience.  Sis, as we call sometimes call Kessach, was so cute and bubbly.  Easy to be around.  Her brother Chans, then 5, remembers me always reminding him to say 'please' and 'thank-you'.    And over the years, Sis and I have stayed close.   We may not be able to get together as often as we would like, but when we do, it is as if the conversation just picked up where we left off weeks ago. 

We saw each other at Anna and Emily's graduation party the week after my heart attack.  We hugged.  We cried from happiness that I was still alive!  Zadia was in on the group hug, all of us laughing through our tears.  Sis and I promised we would get together soon and today we are!  I am really looking forward to one on one time with her. 

Being so scared that I would die, feeling that this really could be it, has made me re-prioritize.  To rethink some things in my life and how I approach some issues.    The only item in the 'family' category is to MAKE time.  We are all so busy.  Everyone has their own lives and hobbies and activities.  Since I have all this recup time on my hands now and the doctor has said I could drive, no restrictions, I am taking advantage of the TIME I have.  Sis and I emailed back and forth through the week and today is her day off work, "please come Saturday!".  "I'll be there!"   And I will.    I did tell her I would not call at the crack of dawn. I'd let her snooze in a bit.  So I am waiting until I think it is late enough.  Well, my god, it's 8:30am already....everyone should be up by now!!  Burning daylight.   But, I told myself at 5:50 this morning when I woke up,  I would have to wait until at least 9:30-10.  If I were not keeping my hands busy with this, I would have to sit on my hands to keep from calling!!   Oh, well, time for  me to get out of my jammies, too.  A nice shower and get ready for my day.