Phone Calls

(Alexander Graham Bell makes the first phone call in 1876.)

Among friends here in Corpus Christi, I am known as someone who rarely makes phone calls. I like people to call, but somehow don't like to initiate the conversation. However, I am always glad when people call me, especially my children.

Today two unexpected phone calls were answered: from two of my cousins wondering how we are with the aftereffects of Hurricane Ike. My cousin Margaret in Calgary, Alberta, Canada called this morning. She was worried that the barrier island I took her to when she visited five years ago was Galveston Island--so glad it was much further west around the Gulf! (I am going to go and visit her on the last day of the month!)

The other call was from my cousin Jim, who lives in Blaine, WA. Of all my first cousins, with whom I've lost touch, he is the closest in age to me. The others are decades older. I am so touched that he would think of us down here. I have not seen him since my dad's memorial service in 2002.

This makes me realize at a deeper level that I need to make greater efforts to visit MY relatives when we go to WA State. We usually visit my husband's parents and his siblings there. Since my mother's death in 1992, I have seldom tried to see the four cousins who live up there. Neither have they maintained contact. Even though I always send our annual Christmas letter to them, only two of them ever respond.

I need to take a lesson from the faithfulness shown by cousin Margaret, who is my mother's first cousin. Since 1992, Margaret has consistently written multiple paged letters by hand to me every month. (She does not use the internet.) For Christmas she always writes each person a long letter, enclosed in the book she gives each one. Her letters previously intimidated me, and so I did not reply. Still, Margaret kept writing. I now write letters back to her and enjoy doing that, since I've released my guilt for not answering in kind (and quantity).

Both Margaret and Jim, as well as some friends who called me right after the knee arthroscopy, are showing me how much a phone call can mean to people. Practice makes perfect, so I had better start!