I moved to the USA thirty-three years ago last month and landed here on a Friday afternoon with nothing but a suitcase and a job waiting for me on Monday morning. I didn’t know a soul and had fifty bucks in my pocket. I thought I had a place to stay but I was wrong so my cash was spent that first night on a motel. With the classifieds in my hand I went in search of a rooming house. At the first place I stopped I met a woman raising her daughters and renting out the rooms her sons had vacated for - one off to college and the other the armed services. I moved in that night.
Those people have been my American family for 33 years now. We’ve all grown so much older and there are lots of children in the mix now. Every summer they rent a summer house near here so that all the cousins and siblings can get together from across the country.
It’s a great opportunity for our boys to get to know everyone. We went over there several times this week to swim and mingle as we have done a couple of other summers as well. Their kids are similar ages ranging from 7 to 16 and it as close to cousins as they have on our side of the family.
When I think back to the summer of ‘79 when I left Canada, barely 21 and totally alone, it was an adventure I didn’t think would last 2 years let alone a lifetime. But here it is a million years later and another generation is growing up friends.