I guess everyone thinks their family is weird. I mean, whose family life actually reflect the Beavers or the Waltons... or even the Bundys, Simpsons or Griffins? We never seem to find a suitable model for our families in mainstream media, so we all think our families are strange. The older I get, the more I realise that my immediate family is very normal. Two working parents, one sibling and no pets. Nothing very strange or exciting about these guys. But my extended family... hoo boy, they're a whole different story.
I think I could, if I had the talent and the patience, write a Roots-like saga of my family's history. Chequered as it is with pirates, slaves, priests, "ladies", thieves, heroes (decorated and undecorated alike)... well, you can see I have the fodder. There are tales we have: continent-crossing camel caravans, sea voyages around the Horn, indentured servants marrying their keepers, husbands with two even three wives... my family is the anomaly in being so normal in this tapestry of strange events and interesting people.
So, it comes as somewhat of a shock when we get an email from my mother's cousin in England saying that he has tracked down my mother's oldest brother's family in Israel and would we like to contact them and could they contact us. Not only is it amazing to find a whole family in a country I never thought I'd see but now just might visit - I didn't even know my mother HAD older brothers. She has two, in fact, from my grandfather's first marriage (first marriage?) - or, I should say had, as neither are still living. My cousin (half-cousin?) sent us pictures and I was just floored to see what looked like my brother in girl-form staring back at me, waving across continents, across oceans and deserts. For the first time, I feel what all those explorers and adventurers hidden in my family tree must have felt: itchy feet. Israel calls and I'm desperate to answer.
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