Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Minnesota 2015 - My Family Tree

After catching up briefly with my brother and sister in law I curled up in the bottom bunk of my grandniece's bed, she was sleeping in her parent's room for the duration of my visit, and slept, hard. I sometimes suffer with problems sleeping but after the rigors of this particular trip I was not plagued by them that night.

I woke up at my customary early hour the next morning, my inner alarm clock making it impossible to sleep any later. I sat in the kitchen with my spiral bound notebook on the table in front of me. It was obvious that I was the only one of the houseful of people to be up and around. I heard a door open and close. A young girl appeared, her eyes wide, her hair wild and unruly from sleep.

"Hi!", she said.

"Hi!" I replied.

"I'm surprised I haven't met you before" she said in a very adult, matter of fact way.

I asked her if she knew where the coffee was kept. She helped me locate it and as it brewed took me on a house tour pointing out those things most of interest to one as young as she. The tour was short and familiar. She showed me the living room where I had caught up with my family the night before. She showed me the kitchen where we had just made the coffee. She showed me her room, where I had slept and the dining room, where we had just met minutes before. Her parent's room was being used by her sleeping parents, the basement by my sleeping brother, sister in law and niece. I did not see those. 

My grandniece and I chatted. She informed me that she was not 6 or 7 but 6 and three quarters and that I was pronouncing her name incorrectly, but that was okay because most people did.

Slowly the other members of my family stumbled in in various levels of uncaffinated disarray. As they slowly came to we made plans for the day.

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