Growing up without siblings, I was the youngest of 5 first cousins in my family and always treated by them as a youngest sister. My Dad's sister had two children, my Cousin Basia and Cousin Wojtek. Both older than I by 6 and 8 years, they played with me when I was little and participated in my life until I left the country in 1974. Basia lives in the country with her family, and visits my Parents quite often. Wojtek lives in Berlin, Germany and visits my family occasionally, but I have not seen him since I left 34 years ago. It was a grand day yesterday when they both came and we spent the entire Sunday together reminiscing about the old times, catching up on news of their families and having fun goofing around. They are both retired, she a teacher, he a printer, and have children and grandchildren.
Nevertheless, yesterday we were kids again. It started with remembering when we were little and played in our Grandparents' house, then the day moved on to trying goofy hats and lots of laughter. You can see in the photos what we all look like now - it seems strange to meet people whom you remember only as young persons and now we are old. But still the same! Still the same laughter, joking, same characters. With a tremendous baggage of years, but still the same underneath the passage of time.
I would love to spend more time with them, but this one Sunday was great, anyway. They left at sunset, laden with baked goods from my Mother, and a baked chicken, and jars of marinated mushrooms. I got my Grandmother's porcelain tea cup with saucers as a gift from Basia, porcelain which I still remember from her house.
Our Grandmother had a great education in the arts of running a household and I remember a lot of what she taught us. But mostly the baked goods and the tea cups. She baked very elegant pastries, delicate, pretty and delicious. She taught me about color composition in meals and how to decorate cakes. I still make several kinds of preserves which she used to make and love cooking as she did.