My lost cousin Chris

As you may know, we are a close family and I keep in close contact with most of my cousins, and spend time with them whenever I can although they all live hundreds of miles away! I was delighted recently to ‘find’ a second cousin and become close to her too. She actually is the daughter of my mum Monica’s cousin so I guess she is my second cousin… or my first cousin once removed .. or my second cousin once removed… I get a bit lost on the ‘removed’ part of relationships!

Monica had two cousins who were much older than her; they were young men when my Monica and her sisters were girls, and whenever they visited they would be so funny and outlandish and kind to their young cousins. In the old black and white pre-war photos they looked dashing and handsome and elegant  and then there were the funny ones of them dressed up.

I never met Howard, the older one who married a French or Belgian woman, but I did meet Eric. Instead of a tall handsome dark-haired man, by the time I met Eric he was quite old, and short and grey… but very smiley and a lovely man. He had married late and had two sons, Andrew and Chris.

Our family went to meet them a couple of times when I was in my teens, probably about sixteen; Chris was a similar age to me, a good-looking boy, with curly black hair. His brother Andrew was younger and kept to himself, so I only have vague memories of him. I became quite friendly with Chris and saw him several times over the years. The last time was at Monica’s funeral; I was so touched and pleased when he came, having travelled some way… we hadn’t been in contact for a while and I thought it was so kind of him to support us at such a difficult time.

This was before mobile phones, e-mail and social networking and I completely lost touch with Chris. I moved around quite a bit – in rented accommodation, in a shared house with friends  in my own flat,in my own house, moving from Manchester, to Oldham, to Weston… I think of Chris from time to time; I have tried to find him – I’ve emailed people with the same name, written letters to people who may be him… but I have never found him. perhaps he was one of those people I emailed or write to and he no longer wishes to be in contact, maybe I haven’t yet found him…

I hope he is well and happy, I hope he has a loving family and is enjoying a good life as my cousins and I are… Happy Christmas, cousin Chris