As I have written about before, half of my ethnicity is Hungarian. In the past year I have been communicating with Maria, a second cousin from the European branch of my clan. She resides in Melbourne Australia with her husband Zoltan. She has a younger brother, Bela, who lives in Debrecen near the Romanian border where their mother Maria also resides. She is of my generation and prior to 2020, I knew nothing of her or this branch of my family.
So on Christmas Eve I received an unexpected gift. Bela arranged a video call through Facebook Messenger for our face to face meeting. He is an English speaker because of the time spent here on his job and he served as a translator. It was truly a wonder to use technology in this manner to visualize and speak to a family member thousands of miles away. My amazement betrays my age I know. Those younger would find this commonplace. I learned about other family relations and met Bela's 3 daughter as well. He is a brilliant economist and orchestrated the call. Judy helped me at our end getting my MacBook Air set up. It is a fulfilling experience for me and we will do it again with my kids and grand kids.
One of the major things this pandemic has stolen from us is the connections between people that allow us to share ideas, communicate with full emotions and feel the physical presence of another. Screens just don't do it. It is frustrating.
Had a wonderful dinner at Andrew's yesterday with Katey and his kids. The food was plentiful and we all emerged stuffed. Shannon had a great time. Katey's lemon meringue pie was a hit and Judy's squash was all consumed as well. The host said it was his favorite Christmas in some time, so I guess it was a success. This is Katey and Shannon shown above from the gathering.
all for now
stay safe
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