Heaven

Thanks to a few February snow days, I've been able to catch up on sorting and editing a backlog of photos as well as update my blogs. These photos are from October 22, 2014, which just happens to have been my birthday. Noon hour Mass at St. Mary's in Brookline and the Wednesday night session at Malachy's in Quincy: my idea of a perfect day.

Best Birthday Present, Ever

Where do I start, except to say that the past few days have been amazing, beginning with a random, out-of-the blue e-mail from Janis Ann Tanner who turns out to be a second cousin from my long-lost Piazza family.

I am now in touch with two more cousins, Annette Valentinetti Facciponti and Andrea Rasulo - these names are beautiful music! - and with my grandparents' generation having numbered 65 siblings and first cousins, this is the tip of the iceberg.

To understand the significance of all of this, one must first know that I never met my father, have only known a few details of his life (this is one of only two photos I have of him, and I only saw these for the first time at age 30), and have never met anyone on that side of the family. Imagine that half of who you are is a black hole, an emptiness that never goes away (and yeah, I've done a pretty fine job of making up for all of that, I'd say); and now, suddenly - ON MY BIRTHDAY - I am given the most incredible gift, the best gift ever: at least three cousins with names and faces and common history, with more to come.

I've spent my whole life adopting myself out to friends and neighbors with big families, never knowing, of course, that I had a very large family of my very own.

I knew they'd come for me.