Visit binds old ties

Not long ago, we visited a little about Cousin Tink and the great times we had as kids. Because she is now living in Phoenix for a while, we decided we needed to see each other so this woman from lma flew out to visit the girl from Nara Visa. Her son and his family, Mark, Maria, and Serena, took me in for a few days and spoiled me royally in between the visits with Tink.

When Mark was a little boy, he and I were fairly good friends and did a few things together when I would be home during the summers.
He liked to go fishing, and we would manage to spend some time together at Ute Lake so he could enjoy a full day of fishing and slipping away to capture a chew of tobacco when he thought I didn’t know what he was doing.

Some forty-plus years later, we had the chance to renew that friendship and to spend more time together than we had spent since those early days. I can’t speak for him, but I surely felt as close to him last week as I felt so long ago.

He seemed to want to know a few stories about the Moncus side of his family and made the mistake of asking the person who talks all too much. He may never ask questions again, but he did receive a glimpse of our history and can now decide whether he wants to claim us along the way.
While Maria cooked and Serena very quietly programmed my new cell phone, Mark and I relaxed and spent time just visiting. I can’t remember feeling more comfortable and more relaxed in many years than I felt as we sat on their back patio and looked into the beautiful desert while talking about the very distant past.

Such a setting made the history easy to discuss because we seemed to be remote from civilization. Also, I was able to come up with a few stories about the years our family lived in Arizona in order to escape the flu epidemic here and to make a little money to keep the homestead going.

Seeing that Mark has retained his lively sense of humor was a major treat, and we had great fun just laughing about anything and everything as his mother and I have done through the years.

Maria fell right in with us and shared her sense of humor. I think their daughter, Serena, would have liked to join us, but she is at the reserved stage of life that doesn’t permit her to show her great sense of humor to strange adults. At least, she smiled at times, and I wondered exactly what she was thinking. I could probably have guessed as I have known a few young ones through those many years of teaching.

Of course, Tink and I spent as much time together as possible and did our fair share of laughing and remembering those great times of our youth. She wanted me to tell all her friends hello and to let them know how much she misses them.

I think Mark learned what a tough assignment that was when he was here this week and began to meet a few of her friends. He has been away from our area and might have forgotten just how many friends his mother has collected through the years. He also relearned that the people of his home county care very deeply for each other and worry when anyone is not as well as should be.

Having time to become reacquainted with Tink’s son was a rare gift. I have a feeling that we won’t wait another few decades before we get together again.