For B and J with love...

Hi Sis P This is B…. Just calling to let you know that we’ll be passing thorough Minneapolis and we would like to stop and visit with you on our way to Chicago…. This was the message I retrieved from my voicemail sometime close to the end of summer ’09. Just your typical ‘passing through your neck of the woods message’ right? No… You see when I heard that message a myriad spectrum of emotions ran a gamut through my mind, and I will be totally honest here… Fear (yeah – pathetic isn’t it?), anxiety, anticipation, gladness that my cousin would actually be visiting me and last but not least, curiosity…. How would this so called stopover unfold? Hmm…
I had not seen B in quite a while - approximately 8 yrs to be precise and what I remembered of her was that she was a typical bratty teenager whom I was related (quite closely) to but had not much else in common with, except that she was my ‘friend’ on FB…
Bbrring…… bring… I picked up the phone …… Sis P hiiiiiii….. Did you get my message…? We’ll be arriving on…. (Talking a mile a minute). Who is “we”? Oh it’s J he’s my boyfriend. Hmm I said… Why did you say hmm she said, is it because he’s not Nigerian? What does that have to do with the price of Fish in the market? I asked. Is he nice? … She giggles. …Yeah well then… By the way I like your hair I said after a few minutes of cousinly conversation… REALLY!!! She said, (she happens to be sporting some fiiiine locs) yeah really… (You see B remembered me as her “SU” cousin who would never have approved nor gasp…. Liked her hairstyle…) I am surprised she said but thank you…. After a while we ended the conversation and I got off the phone actually now beginning to look forward to her visit as I had a glimmer of hope from that conversation that we would at least be able to relate on some level.
On the day of their arrival, after numerous ‘we’re nearly there calls’, the bell rings and I go to the door and upon opening the door I saw a gorgeous couple both quite tall to my 5 feet you got it… almost zippo… THIS was my bratty cousin? Sis P she yelled OMG it’s been forever… This is J and the motor started – yada yada yada … from the start I had quite a lot to digest… This was not who or what I expected, I had expected to do my cousinly duty and chalk the weekend to “familingtropy” but after just a few minutes into the visit I realized that this visit would not go as I imagined. You see … upon setting sight on B I felt a certain warmth rise up within me…. This was my baby ‘aburo’ all grown up gracious, beautiful and Godly (the latter I had begun to realize during my phone conversation with her….
Now J where can I start? He totally impressed me and won me over immediately. (He got me at hello…) He was polite, charming ( not in a smarmy way) and very calm the kind of guy that you would want your sister to bring home….
Without taking too much of your time I’d like to say that B and J’s visit was a delight to me – despite our differences, we all got on like a house on fire…. I couldn’t look at them without feeling mushy inside…. Not because of the ‘romance’ that was obviously in the air but because during the time we all spent together during this visit – the laughing, listening to music, the ‘fooding’, the shopping (of course), the late night profound conversations (they are both Ivy- league scholars with deep minds -lol), them going on a 5 mile jog early in the morning (Pas moi s’il vous plait….quelle horreur !!!!), I was developing a bond with my B and J based not on the fact (obviously) that I was related but B, but on a new platform of seeing her as work of progress in The Fathers hands and a young lady with much to offer….. Living out this phase of her life with a Godly man at her side and looking forward to great things,…. with big dreams – I was happy..
Sunday morning arrived too soon – there stood a teary eyed me, after they had given me a HUGE sweatshirt from their alma mater and ANOTHER gift (I told you they were gracious) waving them off saying ‘why can’t you stay another night’ go figure! After numerous hugs and kisses and them saying ‘We’ll be back! –Bye Sis P then B and J were gone.....
I walked back into the house with mixed emotions – a sense of melancholy, poignancy, mixed in with a good dose of love and joy… We were family you see – both in the natural and in the spirit…. And despite our differences – ethnicity, age, sex, locs, ‘fros and specs WE WERE FAMILY! bonded by love… I can truly say that I was deeply enriched by their passing through my life, and grateful to God for allowing us to touch each other’s hearts…. AND I am still waiting for you both to fulfill your promise to come back….
And as Se-un – my cousin, is on his way back to Chicago, after spending Christmas with me (OMG! …) and Sola – my brother is IM-ing me and Deolu and Bukky are calling me and Olumae – my mom is texting me, and you know…. I got 5 sibs… I am reminded about how truly BLESSED I am to have FAMILY….
Let’s take the time to appreciate both our natural and spiritual families today….. WE ARE BLESSED!
So to B and J with much love…. And you know I mean it….

Mettabel