Family

Slept a bit better and after breakfast we headed to Toronto Uni for our last visit. Low key but we covered a lot and could see why we do so much with them. Afterwards we did a round up chat and review.....it’s been really good. My only regret is how hard its been to get a quiet time to talk to T alone about things at work....so asked to talk at the end and we managed a (very brief!) few words. Better than nothing but I’m clearly not the only one who’s talked to him and he has a plan to tackle in November
Headed off to meet up with J...a cousin I’ve never met before. She’s the daughter of the only son in my mum’s family and they’ve lived in Toronto a long time. I last met him about 4 years ago when we were both visiting other family in California, but before that apparently I last saw him when I was 2!. Their family has had a lot of tragedy (J’s brother died in a road accident as a teenager, her mother died some time ago and her eldest son had a very serious car accident 3 years ago and survived but has major brain damage). We chatted lots on the drive back to her house north of the city and then I had a lovely catch up with Uncle G. He reminds me so much of the men that his sisters married (or rather the ones who stayed together!) - calm, gentle, warm and quiet (probably the only way to cope with living with the firecrackers they all were/are!) whilst having very strong physical resemblance to all his sisters. J has an incredibly difficult life but seems to be doing a great job with her family despite it all and her younger son D was an absolute sweetie. So strange to meet someone for the first time and yet have so many of her traits and views feel so familiar.
We chatted on over dinner then she dropped me at the bus for the trip back to the city centre and I listened to a novel all the way.
Arrived at the new Airbnb but not as nice as last weekend - very much a commercial set up with a room in a house set up like a boarding house with shared bathroom. Clean but not my sort of thing at all. Still, just for sleeping in really so it will be fine