Cousins

I am so lucky with my cousins; not only do I love them because they are family, but I like them as people and always enjoy being in their company. None lives near to me, but we have always kept in touch, and now with mobile phones and email it is easier than ever. A couple of my cousins I don’t often actually meet up with, just the way our lives work, but it doesn’t change the affection I feel for them.

My latest book, Radwinter, is about family; I’m not sure if my fictional family ever say, ‘family first’ but that is almost a motto of my own gang. I think other people might find it strange that I feel this strong link and bond with people to whom I’m connected in the first place by the fact that their parents were siblings of my parents. I have been fortunate enough to discover a ‘new’ cousin a couple of years ago… her mother and my mother were cousins so although we knew of each other, we had not met. When we met for the first time and embraced I had a strong sense of that ‘family feeling, even though we had only ever spoken on the phone before. We both thought we saw in the other a definite ‘family’ likeness, a recognizable similarity which linked us physically as well as genealogically. We keep in touch regularly now, and she s coming for lunch next week with her sister.

Through researching my family history I have been in touch with other more distant links in the family chain; two people I have never met who live in the east of the country, and with whom I correspond. They are of a previous generation, although of a similar age to me… you know how in big families there is a gap between the eldest and the youngest! More recently I was very excited when a distant cousin got in touch with me, a cousin who lives thousands of miles away and of an even more distant link. When I saw a photo of her, I thought I could definitely see a real likeness to two of my first cousins… maybe I am imagining things, but to me there was a great sense of ‘family’ when she contacted me!

As I said at the beginning, I am very lucky!

My story of cousins, and brothers…

http://www.amazon.co.uk/RADWINTER-Lois-Elsden-ebook/dp/B00IFG1SNO/ref=pd_rhf_ee_p_t_1_Y4M5