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February 1, 1998
Extended family can be funny business.. Sometimes, you can get every possible situation imagineable in just one family--that is, if you can recognize the person(s) involved to be related.
Some people have extremely large families. Their parents come from familise of eight, maybe.. or ten children.. Impressive. You don't find that sort of family too often these days. But I'm more impressed by the families who keep in touch with the extended-family. I just can't figure out how that works. No matter how many siblings your parents have, you would still be aware of who they are: "Aunt Sally, Uncle Bob.." ..etc. But how do you keep track of the people on your mother's father's second younger's brother's eldest daughter's family's side? "Who?"
Every Chinese New Year, relatives I didn't know I had come to visit. It's become some sort of challenge to me: to see how many faces--faces, mind, not names--I can recognize with each year. I don't come from a big family, per se, it's just that from my grandparents down..everyone, miraculous, kept in touch.
I remember once for a relative's wedding, we received an invitation on my grandmother's side. Vaguely, I can only remember that the bridegroom was my grandmother's fifth (?) brother's son. At the wedding, we discovered that the bride was my grandfather's brother's son's daughter. Or something like that.
In another incident, I discovered that a family at church was related to us when we saw them at yet another wedding. "Hey, how come you're here?"
It's awfully weird, being related to so many people. In a sense, we all are; but are we really supposed to be aware of that fact? My grandmothers appear to think so. "Now, this is your..." It's funny: sometimes the relatives who are supposed to be in my generation are middle-aged with two or three kids of their own. Wait, that's not funny-- that's darn scary. Ah well.
Sometimes, just because I have nothing better to do (You know those moments), I sit down and look around at passing people and wonder, "Are you related to me?"
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