This family has got to be that fist!

Remember that line from the movie Soul Food? The grandma says at dinner one Sunday saying how all the members got to stick together. Lately I have realized how important family is to me.
Last week I finally hooked up with my grandma after she was turned away from the towers.
Though the cousin she was staying with didn't call me like she said and I was highly upset, and almost didn't see my grandma.
But that same cousin is the reason I can be writing this now. The reason I am not outside sweating trying to figure out how I can put a recliner in my cavalier.
Calling to take her up on her offer to keep some of my stuff at her house over the summer, she tells me she will send her two nephews, who I had never met, over in her truck and they would get my chair and my other stuff!
They come, one husky guy and one really big guy and they are as happy to have a cousin at Howard, as I am that I don't have to move this stuff myself. I want to thank all the girls who were nice to them and didn't take offense to their advances:). They already are making plans to visit me (and some of my friends they hope) next year.
They were offended when I offered them money after they lugged out my stuff, even though that was their first time meeting and my cousin had already told me one of them was out of work. They, Ivory and Tione, made me realized how much I enjoy introducing people as "my aunt, cousin, sister" or other title that implies closeness and shared identity.
They just increased my already present feelings of nostalgia as I excitedly prepare to go home Thursday and celebrate my sister's 7th birthday on Saturday.
So I was happy that I happen to see my cousin last week, for her to make that offer, for me to see my grandma and for other grandma to turn 76 on Sunday. Not only do I come from good and helpful genes . . .but long-living ones too.

Long livingQueen-to-be

*The picture is from my cousin Aisha's graduation last summer. The lady with the cane is my grandma, who turned 76 on Sunday. Don't mind the desperate housewives dress . . .