Found Family

Several weeks ago, my older brother sent younger brother and I a YouTube video featuring a pear orchard in the Cashmere, Wa area. The family that owns and runs it is our family. 

Twenty-three acres of apples were bought in 1953 by my maternal grandmother's brother and his wife. Eventually apples gave way for pears and more land was purchased. Their grandson started farming there full time in 1980 and still works today. He's maybe 5 yeas older than I am. His daughter is now a 4th generation farmer.

I reached out to her recently on FB and told her who I was. She said her dad talks about his family a lot

and they go to the small cemetery every year to clean up and take flowers. I've only been there once, to take some of Mom's ashes to be by her parents. 

She gave me her dad's phone number and I had to leave a message but he called me back the next day. He was so excited to hear from family. He just kept going on and on about his parents/grandparents, and my grandma. He's saved photos and other things just in hopes that someone would turn up to share them with. He had his daughter send me pictures of oil paintings my grandma had done and said he would get them to me sometime. He also invited me to come to the farm and he'd give me a tour. I said we kind of travel as a family and hopefully we can all find a weekend to get away. 

It just made me feel so good to have that connection, even if we had never personally met. We didn't really get that far in our conversation because we would have both been so young. But I do remember being with Mom and Grandma on that farm, probably for a family reunion. I remember his mom mostly because she was from England and I though she was SO cool because of her accent.

We're both going to go through photos and send them to each other if they are of significance. I just went through mine not too long ago to send some to my brothers, so I'm not sure what I have left. I thought my brothers would think this was pretty cool that I had talked to him but it was like 'meh', no big deal. I just don't get them sometimes. 

I've always felt a strong pull to that area because I knew that's where my mom's family was, but knowing there are still family members there really made me happy.