My father had four kids in his original family, all are gone now. One lost his life in WWII after being part of the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes. His son now lives in California, and sadly I haven’t been able to meet him. His son, however, lives on the East Coast and traveled up to Boston for a few days. He is nearly my age. We’ve been in touch for a while on Facebook -- and we finally met in person last night.
The minute I saw him my “Ropple-meter” went off -- wow! I swear I would have known he was a cousin had I not known his name. We spent several hours wrapped up in conversations about family, catching up, filling in gaps in each other’s knowledge. I’ve looked at photos of his grandfather (my uncle) so often that his face is ingrained in my mind. Meeting up last night, I kept seeing flashes that were like the old photos come to life. The shape of his eyes, the shape of his head, his cheeks -- all Ropple. Somewhere in heaven, my dad and his brothers are happy. I could feel it. Tonight I am bringing him over my Aunt Elaine’s to meet his grandfather’s little sister and hear stories firsthand about the family that he has been eager to learn about. Welcome to this branch of the family, Christian! Feels like I’ve known you forever already!
We had a great day in art class, spent partially at the MFA drawing on our phones, Yup, the phone that I love more than anything is now my sketchbook. I can’t believe that while I’ve doodled a bit in it over the past year that I’ve had it, I’ve never really taken the time to create “real” drawings on it. Yesterday I spent a couple hours getting used to the interface for observational drawing and sketching away. Seems silly, but finding the place where I could grab a portable chair and carry it around made a big difference. Sitting down and drawing was challenging -- haven’t really done that since undergraduate college. I loved it!! Yet another whole new world. I can’t wait to get into this with the kids in the fall!
Already the ankles and feet are in full revolt from attempting to walk around yesterday. The brace helps a little with support, but since the foot is swollen, it causes a different pain. Gotta get through this week. Oy! We Ropple’s aren’t wooses, lol. It’ll happen. Cheers.