FAMILY

Families are the oddest things. At least relations are, not only relationships, though they are odd too. Turns out that Etti and Yaacov are actually family. Really and truly. By marriage, through my daughter, you know, the one who refuses to talk to or even about me! Yesterday I left at noon to go see Etti and Yaacov. The plan was to take them out to lunch then visit their son's business because there was no way I was going going to climb their stairs again so soon. I picked them up and as Nazareth Elite doesn't really have any place nice to eat (Nazaerth now has a KFC which isn't kosher) we went down to Afula and had lunch at the same place Golan and I ate after the missile fell back during the war. We had a very nice meal, then went to the nursery where Dotan and his wife were waiting for us. We sat around and chatted. Yaacov even helped a few customers with advice and whatnot. My daughter came up and Dotan's wife asked about her husband. We quickly got to the fact that her father is related to my daughter's husband's father! If I got it right they are either brothers or first cousins. So, we ARE related after all. How cool is that? I've always said that they are the closest thing I have to family here, and now it turns out that they really are, and the fun part is that it's through my snob of a daughter who will be embarrassed by the relationship. She's really turned into into the most insufferable snob imaginable. The first thing I did when I got home was to send an e mail to my son. He will be thrilled by the news because there's not a conceited bone in his body and he adores them. He, in turn, will inform his sister, who in turn, will stick her nose in the air and make a nasty comment. Me, I'm just as thrilled as can be about it. I pretty much danced in my seat all the way home to my beloved Don McClean driving disk!! I HAVE FAMILY HERE and they are some of my favorite people here. It also means that they will argue less when I try to help them because it's easier to accept help from family than friends! If you ever doubted that G-d works in the strangest ways, here's the proof.
Back during the war, when Golan and I were at the Nursery, I ordered what we Israelis call ' house shoes, or,'slippers'-ceramic things to hang on the wall outside my front door to put plants in and they were waiting for me yesterday. I almost burst with joy when she sold them to me at the 'family discount'. I'll get Golan to put them up and bring plants for them from my own flower/plant shop. This is so cool. Lavana and I are going to visit her sister in law and then go to the Nursery next Wednesday afternoon because we need some things they sell for our shop and both places are in the same general area. She's almost as excited about this as I am, and is trying to figure out how we might be related too. She'll probably find it too, even if she has to go back to Adam and Eve!!