You don't choose family. Some are takers. Others are givers. And I'm blessed to have received so much from mine.
Nowadays, you can even find your family on the internet. And like Forrest Gump says, you never know what you're gonna get!
Online dating makes some bold claims, but they've never delivered a story like what I'm about to tell you. Because Once I proposed to Angela, we discovered some uncanny coincidences.
Both my mother & father came from families of faith. Because my family is so giving, their kindness boomeranged around the world. And connected me to my wife a century later.
On my Mother's side - You'd think Aunt Betty was Mother Theresa. She gave 30 years as a nurse in India. The year she retired, Angela's uncle began practicing medicine in the very same hospital. We found a connection.
After proposing to Angela, she called with an unusual request: was your paternal grandfather's name Fred? "Fred" died when I was a toddler.
Turns out it was a logical question. Because my mother in law was bragging about her daughters soon-to-be-husband to her former landlady, Sheila - who rented her a room 30 years ago.
On my Father's side, "Fred" hosted international students. The ones who were alone in a foreign culture, thousands of miles from home. So they invited a younger Sheila and her husband over for dinner - celebrate her culture, learn how to make curry, and just be together.
50 years later, Sheila recognized my last name immediately. She knew there was a family of "Eckels" in NE Philadelphia in the late 50s who just had their 3rd son Timmy - my father. We found a connection.
My mother's aunt gave - in a hospital alongside my wife's uncle.
My grandparents gave - and their guest rented a room to my mother-in-law.
And both Aunt Betty and Sheila came to the wedding.
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