Long Last Family and Books to Read

This past week was spring break (April 13-18, 2014) for my family and we went up to New England, visited some extended family related to me. On my side, these were people and places that I knew since the 1970s. And a few new ones were added this time.

Massachusetts is where my parents are from; my wife had visited Boston once briefly in the 1990s, before we met. But she had not spent significant time up there before. I had not been up there myself since 1997.

Wow! Time does fly. 17 years! Some people do not get to live so long. Lots of uncles and aunts and cousins that I had not seen all those years. My grandparents had all passed on by 1982.

It was an interesting and fun trip. Time flew by every day; what seemed like short distances on paper ended up being longer. But we made some good visits. I wanted to see all my mom's siblings, but I ended up only seeing one of the four, with his wife. I had seen them in Indiana last month when my mother passed away. It was tricky to manage time and travel. But it was worth doing. They were extremely gracious and hosted us two nights. Two other nights we stayed in hotels.

A surprise or unplanned visit occurred, and that explains the "long last family" in the title.

Recently I have gone over and re-edited a memorial article that I had written about a friend who had passed away back in 2001. Based on feedback by a few closer to him, I realized I needed to re-word it, putting some things in better context, correcting some conjecture, and simply removing some details and negativity that it seemed to contain.

It is hard to write correctly about the living or dead.

Is it hard to write, period? Maybe it is difficult to make the writing worth reading, or: also known as good writing. That can be a tricky trick.

Sure.

The story of my father (b. 1937) goes back to his mother having him by a mysterious figure during the Great Depression. Most of my life he was unknown to me, and others of my family. His name was Frederick Smith, but for years we did not know this. So technically, I should be a Smith. For whatever reasons, they did not stay together or marry. My dad was raised by Guy and Ethel Clinch, which became official when he was adopted at 16 years of age. His mom, my biological grandmother, died at the young age of 36.

Frederick went on to have a normal life and raised three girls, the first of which being born in 1947. His wife, who lived to be 90, died without knowing that her husband Frederick had fathered my dad.

My dad and his oldest half-sister met about 10 years ago, while he was well into his 60s. They have gotten together a few times and get along well. They have physical traits in common. As do I and my children. Biology and genetics are a real thing.

I finally met her Thursday; we visited for an hour. It was nice.

I have half-cousins in different parts of the country. I have never met them but I have learned about them.

I have long lost family.

Also, after some good conversations with my uncle, the only brother of my mom, I am now re-dedicated to reading some books that I have begun and not finished:

1. The Brothers Karamozov
2. Moby Dick
3. War and Peace
4. maybe "Ulysses" kind sorta. At least more analysis of it. And at least Finnegan's Wake.

That is what I got for now.

Blog it. EMC.