Meeting my Cousin on Hilton Head Oct. 16, 2013!

We headed over to Hilton Head Island yesterday morning to visit my cousin. She is formerly of Portsmouth, Virginia. She also lived in Roanoke, Virginia for many years. She is the daughter of my Grandmother Wright's baby sister Marie. We visited at her lovely home and then had a delightful lunch outdoors at a local restaurant on the most perfect Oct. beach day. Glorius sun with a light breeze and very low humidity. It was so great to see her and share some family memories and history. We had not seen each other since Grandmothers 80th Birthday Party in 1987. I have fond memories of the party that Janice gave Grandmother Wright. Grandmother was just thrilled and seemed quite happy that day. Most of her immediate family was in attendance.  She always talked at length about Janice and her accomplishments and how beautiful and talented she was. 

We hope to stay in touch since we both now have homes within 45 miles of each here. Lots of similarities about the two of us. She loves poodles! Four of the sweetest miniatures all black/with a bit of gray. Three boys and one darling little girl. I fell in love with Dixie and she seemed to really like me too! It might of been that we kinda greased the skids with the dogs by bringing them a bag of Beach Bum homemade dog biscuits from the SeaSide Sister's shop on Tybee. The dog treat business is part of our MerMaid Cottage groups non-profit endeavors. They also do their own coffee which is placed in each cottage. We had hoped to bring some of that as well but they were temporarily out. We also both have an Earnest Johnson original painting in our homes. He was a very accomplished watercolorist from Oriental, N.C. I met him in Roanoke at the Sidewalk art show one year shortly before he passed away. A delightful and talented man. My painting is of a sunfish sail boat tearing across the water. Her's is a snow scene of Hotel Roanoke which was commissed by her and her former husband to make signed prints for sale to benefit a local charity. 

We also share a friendship with Suzanne Gandy! They used to live across the street from each other in South Roanoke. We both agreed if Suzanne is your friend you can always count on her when needed. So true. Suzanne mentioned her friend on Hilton Head one day at lunch with me at Wildflour on 4th Street in Roanoke. I asked a question or two and then it dawn on me she was talking about my cousin! What a small world. So glad we had that conversation! 

We are facebook friends and will work to stay in touch. I am not good with phone calling. I guess I have spent so much time on the phone at work that the telephone seems like work to me. We all totally enjoyed our visit and look forward to seeing each other again. She is an accomplished pianist and performs with a theatre group in her area. We will have to work on catching a show when we are down here again. Our waitress assisted with taking a photo of all of us.

Enjoyed  a nice reunion. Such a beautiful place and sweet sweet pups.  I could spoil those pups silly in a quick minute!  We would make great pet/house sitters and we are even experienced...LOL.

My Sunfish Sailing painting by Earnest Johnson.