This one's for Suzanne......Cousins

Me and Suzanne.

Suzanne wanted to know when she would appear, so this is her spot.

I have Six first cousins and none of them live in England!!!

Me Auntie Joan, Uncle Joe and John

John and his mandolin

John is the son of my mum's brother. We are at opposite ends of the scales he being the oldest cousin and me being the youngest. John grew up loving wildlife and music and to that end departed to Scotland a number of years ago to become Senior Countryside Ranger at Calderglen Country Park. He plays mandolin in a folk band called Cockalorum. He is the cousin i know least, i was the bridesmaid at his sisters wedding in 1973 and never saw him again until his dad became ill in 2006 i was with my cousins and aunt at the hospital the day he died and later saw him again at the funeral. We got on very well at that point i guess the years that were between us until then had melted away and i am now in contact with him more especially since Auntie Joan died in 2009. He is now in the process of selling up and moving to the isle of Skye with his girlfriend Carmen, even further! away.

This is Val

Valerie is John's sister, she was the only bridesmaid at my mum and dad's wedding and i in turn was the only one at hers. out of all my cousins we are the most alike, in looks and in character. Val's daughter came over a few years ago and couldn't get over how alike we were. Oh Val emigrated to South Africa after marrying in 1973.

And this is me

Val and Melinda who has the genes too.

For a few years before her parents died Val would come over and do some work for an agency supporting people in their own homes over the summer, this gave her the opportunity to visit her parents and earn some money too. Val divorced from her husband after having two daughters Melinda and Sandy, she spends the majority of her time with the local church. Val graduated from the guildhall school of music as an opera singer and continues to play guitar and various other instruments whilst singing for the church, i have an album of worship songs that she made. Val is lovely, there are ten years between us but again the age gap that was there when i was a child has gone. It's a shame that we are so far away from each other but we text now and again. Oh and the things that make us alike....timekeeping, leaving things till the last minute, Val was still making her wedding dress the night before her wedding! Not wearing shoes, whilst clearing her mums flat after her death we both trotted up and down stairs barefoot. Music though our tastes vary and looks we are very much alike especially now we both have short and grey hair.
The genes i think were particularly strong in mum's side of the family, certainly as i get older i look more and more like her. Adam has inherited them too.

So onto dad's side

Uncle Gerald Katherine and Annie in 2010

Katherine, dad's older brother Gerald moved to Paris soon after the end of the second world war, he met my Aunt Annie there during the liberation of Paris. Katherine is the same age as Val and there is a photo of her and Val on another post when they both visited in the sixties. In my teens i spent a lot of time in Paris visiting them after staying in Ramboulliet with a pen friend. At that point i knew Paris far better than i knew London. Over last year Uncle Gerald was unwell and we got into a habit of emailing each other and sadly he passed away in December. Auntie Annie therefore is the last of my aunts and uncles remaining she is 93 her mother lived to 100 so i imagine she is going to be around a while longer.

Stephen on the right with Helen and Keith Winnie and me 

Stephen This is the oldest child of my dad's youngest brother John, who married Winnie i think first or second cousin to him through her mum's father. He is an interesting individual, he works in a tax office in Australia and lives about an hour's drive down from Sydney. He likes Shakespeare, medieval music and world war history amongst other things. He is the clumsiest person i know, and someone with loads of knowledge and no common sense. He has visited the UK a few times in the 90's but is not the easiest house guest to have. But he is my cousin and i keep in contact with him infrequently now because he doesn't seem to have internet access at home.

Keith The second child of three and the naughtiest one when small. He couldn't be more different from Stephen, he is a builder married to Margie with Mark and Naomi their children. I get on with him quite well and keep in more regular contact. I visited Austraila in 1997 with mum and the two older boys. Keith lives in a lovely little town called Tumut somewhere between Canberra and Melbourne. His son Mark and his wife Haley have a little girl Aliza and at the time of writing is expecting again.....everyone is hoping for a boy as if not the Willards will eventually die out. The Hawells' on my mum's side will disappear with John he is the only one left.

Richard and Helen

Helen is Keith and Stephen's sister. I don't have as much contact only through Facebook, she has two boys Joel and Simeon and is married to Richard, i only found out a while back that we shared the same initials HJW she saved me from the name Helen so i got Hazel instead, which i prefer. She was two on the day my parents married which makes her my nearest cousin at 3 years older. Unfortunately she doesn't get on with Keith and they don't speak. Her and her husband moved to Hong Kong about three years ago to do mission work. Er i didn't take to her husband when i met them in 1997.
So that's it my cousins!!!!........................

Janet

Zak and Walter

Ok so there is!!! one more......she isn't my first cousin though, she is my second cousin i think, anyway her mum Janet was my dad's cousin. Suzanne and i share great grandparents, Her grandad was my grandmothers brother.
I used to see her about once a year when my dad would take us down to visit his relatives, Suzanne is 9 months younger than me so we used to be left together whilst the adults did their catching up chatting thing. We got on ok i remember but never really spent enough time to know each other very well. I do! remember her brother at age 11 and me 9 driving me furiously around her grandfathers field in a clapped out van i think it was.

Percy and Walter

Suzanne and Brother Derek

Suzanne

I think where we got to know each other better....and Suzanne i am sure you will correct me if i am wrong is after i got married, i took pics down and then Mum and Dad moved to North Yorkshire and would visit me and whenever they did we would go down to Sussex too. Then we realised how well we got on not least because only  6 months after my Joe was born Suzanne had Percy. Then she had Fred in 95 and i had Adam in 96........ then i called her to let her know i was pregnant again and she said well so am i!!!! and Walter was born a week to the day before Zak in November. So we both had three boys around the same ages. She lives in a beautiful area of Sussex, and i live in the City. She had support with childcare where i had none, my boys basically no medical issues, Suzannes boys.....well where do i start!!!!????? They certainly make use of their NHS! Our boys don't get on as well as we do, in fact there was a time when they positively disliked each other!..well Adam and Percy. I lie Zak and Walter get on when they are together very well.

Walter

Suzanne over the years has become more like the sister each of us never had. She lives not too far away unlike all my other cousins! and for me is the only family outside of my boys that i have left here. We have never argued, though Suzanne will tell me what is what and that is fine with me, she knows me too well and she knew my parents well which is helpful when wondering what to do sometimes.
When i was taken ill she came to visit in the hospital and made sure i had what i needed. She has continued to be a great support and has become involved with the bowel cancer community.....she is Suzfitzy on twitter.
When dad died she and her mum attended the funeral which doubled the family attendance, and when mum died she came up to help to clear mum's house with me, which consisted of a trip to the charity shop, a cup of tea in the cafe, trip to the charity shop, cup of tea in the cafe.

Me and Suz my thin years and a year before finding out i had cancer

We are quite capable of talking about tough things without us generating into tears and more often able to have a great laugh together. So there you are my sister from another mother and the closest to me of all my cousins.