I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU SAVED OUR THANK YOU NOTE

While updating family tree information and drafting my latest family newsletters, I forced myself to slow down and gather more family milestones before rushing to distribute the finished product. The same day I wrote to two siblings from one family, rather than hearing back from either of them, I received a response from their elder sister. She introduced herself as the “daughter of Florence and Abe.”

Florence was my mother-in-law’s niece from her much older brother, whom she never really knew. He was a half-brother from one of her father’s two previous marriages in Eastern Europe. Florence and Abe, however, were at several of our milestone events, including our 1975 wedding, my in-law’s 50th wedding celebration in 1988, and the bris of our younger son in 1994.

When I replied to their daughter, whom we haven’t seen since her wedding day, I sent proof that I knew who she is, Florence and Abe’s eldest daughter Sari. I included a copy of the handwritten thank-you note she sent to us in 1976 after my husband and I, along with his parents, attended her wedding in Connecticut. That’s me; I keep all invitations and thank-you notes. Look how handy it came in after all these years?

Her response didn’t surprise me at all. She wrote, “OMG, that’s right, you were at our wedding. I guess my memory has faded somewhat almost 44 years ago (June 27). I will gladly provide this information in the next day or so. If I can get to it today, I will do so. Hope all is well. Sari”

Possibly she would have sent me all the most personal details, including dates and places of birth and marriage of those in her immediate family, plus their current contact information, but maybe not. To legitimize my request, the note that she penned was attached.

Many researchers are finding relatives through DNA testing and Ancestry.com. Instead, I am comprehensively updating my files, which were painstakingly accumulated by firsthand connections and conversations. Manila folders filled with letters and invitations, and more importantly, handwritten thank-you notes, plus milestone greeting cards stored in file cabinets lend concrete evidence of an undeniable connection to many of our relatives. 

We haven’t seen Sari and Doug since their wedding, but we remember that day more than they know. My husband and I talked about the drive to Connecticut in his parent’s brown Dodge, and how the car overheated on the highway on the ride home. Ahh…the memories.

Now, we can look forward to filling in all the details of the precious moments we’ve missed in over forty years of absence from cousins separated by nothing other than geographical distance. With the older generation gone but not forgotten, possibly this will be the start of a long-overdue family reunion.

July 15th marked the wedding anniversary of my mother-in-law and father-in-law, who married in 1938. I know how happy my dear mother-in-law would be that I have kept up the family connections, which she enjoyed more than any other form of entertainment.