Today's "amazing small world" story

My dad's first cousin and her husband live in Washington DC. She is 87 and he is 91. You'd never know it. They act like they're about 15 years younger, and to some degree, look like it, too. I hadn't visited in a while, as they are incredibly active for people their age. SO my brother and I scheduled a visit this morning.

Way back when, she used to tutor Caroline Kennedy in the White House in the early sixties. I knew he had been a lawyer, but I didn't know exactly what he did. Today, I found out.

They are leaving for Montgomery, Alabama later this coming week to celebrate the 100th birthday of a lone judge in Alabama who supported the civil rights movement 55 years ago. What I did not know is that my dad's cousin had been there a long time in the 60s. He marched in Selma, volunteered his time for the civil rights movement in Montgomery. This was in the face of death threats, the whole none yards. I jokingly told him to say hi to Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center for me. The joke was on me. He said he'd be glad to, had known Morris Dees for many decades! They had a painting on the wall that was of my great-grandmother, painted around the year 1900. He hair had gone prematurely grey, and she had nearly white hair by the time she was 20, and this was WAY before Emmylou Harris had even been born.

I should have known. Anyone who marries into my family had better be in on our point of view, or else be consigned to the outer fringes.