Two years ago, my Nephew did a 23 and me DNA test and we discovered that according to 23 and me, we had another brother who was older than I was by three years. I was the eldest of four brothers so this was a shock. So, after a lot of investigation, we were able to reach out and connect with him.
It was wonderful to meet him and to learn his story. At one point he asked me "What if my dad had known of his birth?" My answer was that I would not exist, but that is another story.
Because he is on the other side of North America, and because of COVID and Travel restrictions we knew we were unlikely to meet in person so we set up a monthly ZOOM meeting. Once a month my brothers and I meet to talk and to catch up. Last year we had a family ZOOM meeting but without my older brother as we were in the process of investigating and figuring out our new relations. This year we had the second family meeting and my older brother was invited and he invited his family. His sister, his daughter and her husband and two grandsons and their children were there at the meeting. As none of us use ZOOM on a regular basis, we take advantage of the 40-minute limit, but for some reason, ZOOM upgraded us to unlimited minutes.
This extra time was used well and before I knew it two and half hours had flown by. My older brother's family and our family explored our stories and learned a lot about each other. As one of the children said, "It is so nice to meet a family we did not know we had." It was one of the highlights of my Christmas this year and look forward to meeting them again.
One of my great-nieces is learning to read and she had her favourite book and she read it to us another highlight of the ZOOM meeting. Technology brings people together and as COVID continues to advance and attack we will, I think, be using more technology to keep in touch.
No comments:
Post a Comment