We met on the school bus

In case you think from the title this is a romantic reminiscence, it isn’t!

I travelled to King’s Lynn for the funeral of an elderly and very dear aunt. I’m very close to her family, and wanted to join my uncle and cousins and the rest of the family to say farewell. As often happens at such occasions, it was a great opportunity to talk about the past, of happy times spent together, and to meet up with people I hadn’t seen for a long time.

There was one man  who I didn’t recognize, but felt I ought to know, and I discovered he was another cousin. In actual fact his father and mine were cousins, but I had only met his father once before. As soon as he was identified to me, the years fled away, and instead of the grey haired gentleman was a young lad with a mop of black hair and intense dark eyes – he and I used to catch the same school bus home sometimes!

We were delighted to meet each other at last, and I reminded him of the school bus; I had once spoken to him, telling him we were related. At the age of about thirteen he had looked absolutely horrified that this girl was a cousin – and I don’t think the school boy he was then had believed me!! We had a laugh about it and it was wonderful how well we got on together.

As I drove home today, I though about happy times spent with my late aunt, and I also thought about how marvellous it is I am now in contact with a ‘new’ cousin and his lovely wife!