Dad and we kids on a Lake Michigan beach. Photo by Mom.

A few weeks ago my dear cousin Elaine told me a wild and weird story that seems appropriate to share on this day, the third anniversary of my Dad’s passing, because the tale began with a photo that Mom had taken of Bob and the kids just, oh, several decades ago.

Elaine and I are the same age and we spent hours, days, weeks together throughout our childhood, as our family traveled from Detroit each summer and invaded her family’s Upper Peninsula dairy farm for our annual vacation. We were pen pals through high school and I visited her when she went to art school in Chicago. (Some day I’ll find the photo of us at a Chicago fire station with a couple of the firemen, wearing their hats, boots and jackets.) Elaine and I were close, and after all these years we try to keep in touch.

She phoned to tell me that earlier this year, at about midnight, she was reading as her husband Rick slept. For no reason at all she decided to put the book down and turn on the television.

The PBS station came on and the program was about the Great Lakes. And who should she see but her cousin Kath, talking about a photo of Uncle Bob and the other cousins.

That segment was just a few minutes of a long program that had aired in 2013—a show that Elaine wasn’t even aware of. She was absolutely floored a). to see me and b). by her out-of-the-blue desire to switch from reading to turn on the TV at that precise moment, just as my bit of the program began.

What are the chances? A mere coincidence? A Cosmic Cousin Connection? Something else at work?

I love the mystery of it!

The Great Lakes video is no longer available online, but you can read my original post about it by clicking here.