Love Actually ....

OK, I'm female, over-emotional at the best of times, and today I'm in a sappy mood. Deal with it :-)

On Saturday I went to visit my cousin James, and his partner Kim. James is a little more than two years older than me, and our fathers are brothers. Like my parents, his split up when he was small, though he has maintained contact with his father until fairly recently, whereas I have seen mine only when I can't get out of it for the past twenty years, and would cross the street to avoid him.

Anyway, James and I lost touch when I was about 7, when our Mum's stopped keeping in contact. When I was 17, we made contact again, and have pretty much been 'irregularly' in touch with each other since then, through some pretty tough events, like when my paternal nan died and James was the one left to tell me - the day *after* the funeral. And when his mum died suddenly at only 54. The normal crappy type of thing that happens, you know what I'm talking about.

Until a few weeks ago, I hadn't heard from James for three years, which was a record since we've been back in touch. I dropped a small hint by sending him a birthday card with every possible way to contact me in, and had an email a couple of days later! Who said hints don't work?! Turned out he and Kim had had two children since I last saw them, which was a bit of a shock to me! I had a few minutes of being distinctly hurt that even those events hadn't been cause to get in touch, but soon got over it - James is (annoyingly!) one of the few people I can't stay mad at!

I had some time off last week, and went over to visit them on Saturday. When I got there, there was James, Kim, Paddy (22months), Courtney (7 weeks), and three of Kim's older daughters, Melissa, Tasha and Nicola, as well as Melissa's friend Sophie, who arrived soon after me. In short, the place was pretty manic, especially compared to my flat, where there's only me and Mum for months at a time.

Melissa and Sophie went upstairs, Tasha and Nicola took Paddy down the town after an hour or so, and that left myself, James, Kim, and Courtney, who James had handed to me when I got there. She proceeded to snuggle down and sleep soundly for over two hours! It was lovely to just reconnect, chat, discuss our respective fathers, and come to the same conclusions that they're both losers! I loved meeting Paddy and Courtney, though who can resist a sleeping baby snuggled up on them? And I can't wait to get to know Kim more, as James has pretty good taste, and he adores her. Good enough for me!

James turned to me at one point, and said that it's mad in their house, to which I remember replying "Yeah, and you love every minute of it!". He's so happy now, with the big family he and I never really had, and in the space of three hours with them, I think some of my cynicism and bitterness wore off. I could literally *feel* the love in their home, and it was a wonderful feeling. We vowed to stay in touch, and I really think we'll stick to it this time. I think we both realise now that there are enough family members who we no longer have, or are in touch with, and that we need to make the most of the people we love. One thing's for sure ... a few hours with my favourite cousin and his family reminded me that love actually *is* all around ...