A Distant Relative

Once upon a time in the family tree, a man we'll call John the Great, so named because he married three times, all three because the woman was so far gone in her pregnancy she could no longer hide it, had 13 children -- 2 from wife #1, 3 from wife #2, 8 from wife #3 -- numbered 1 to 13 in my book.  Hubby comes from child #7, and this gentleman here comes from child #12.  His name is M and although he's only a year older than hubby, technically, he's hubby's 3rd-degree uncle ... or is hubby his 4th-degree nephew?  Anyway, M has both editions of my book.

Today, after 8 years, we drove to Beneden Leeuwen, a village in the province of Gelderland, to visit him and his lovely wife again.  It was a grand afternoon!  We are connected in FB but seeing each other face-to-face meant catching up on the kind of things you can't always share online.  I got updates on everything -- the latest marriages and births, the most recent daily stuff, and even some historical material which I no longer need but will set aside with the rest of what I have here, all destined for the local historical society.  He has 2 handsome sons, 40 and 38, and four granddaughters (no grandsons), all of whom have been diagnosed with astoundingly high IQs.  One of them, Y, will turn 9 this coming May but has already been invited to the highest form of secondary school.  In fact, it has already been agreed that she will be attending classes there once a week starting September.  Guess what she wants to be when she grows up?  Ehem ... an English teacher!  I have finally found a brilliant someone who will inherit all my material.  What luck!

Tonight, the dishes, then back to my planning, correction work, some Robert Burns and my poetry.