Last week i attended my father's Aunt's funeral. She was 97 and had lived a full life to see grand kids and great grand kids. And i realized hat my father's tencaity for keeping close ties to all his relatives has allowed me to grow up with cosuisn who don't know each otehr even thought they are related.

So on top of my 10 or aunts and uncles i have a my father's cousins to count as real family.

And tonite i attended a childhood buddy's father's wake. The best part of the service was the oldest brother's account of "meeting hsi father the first time after he left him in Haiti to stake a place for the family in New york.

He recalled the first time he saw his father after getting of the plane and thinking how tall he was and wondering if he would ever be as tall. And then his first meal in the US being chicken, rice, cooked by his father. And then his father handing him his first can of Pepsi. LOL