The past month on the family compound, on the banks of La Mer Gasnerre has been an anthropologist's dream vacation. First came my family, in all their tall, blond glory, who have two generations of lasting relationships with my former in-laws. Then came my ex-family, in all their dark and shining splendour, to pay obesience to the matriarch and patriarch (age 97) of their family. Then came the children of my former husband, the eldest 39 with children of his own the same age as my ex's youngest: 5. The grandkids call him "Ampa Ougie"; their uncle is a playmate. Needless to say, we all tried to learn the iterations of kinship. I once more learned the difference between a second cousin and a first cousin once removed, which I will have forgotten by tomorrow, and rediscovered the pleasures and perils of living in an extremely complex clan.
2 comments:
The second/once-removed cousin thing is not so hard, if there is general age alignment, but with an ex's child who was an uncle at birth, you need a diagram. :-)
And maybe a slide ruler.
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