Like A Ship in the Night – Meeting Cousin Susan

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It took me getting married, and moving to Ohio, before I met my first-cousin Karen on my mother’s side again after over 50 years. She’d changed a lot since then. And it will be more than that today when Sharon meets her only first-cousin Susan on her father’s side. Susan and her husband spend their summers on the coast near Boston. After our first trip to Boston on our first Canada-to-New England cruise 6 years ago we only had one day to spend in Boston and the choice was made to spend time with Sharon’s Aunt Flo and two of her kids, Jack and Mary. Even in her nineties, Aunt Flo was active and alert and followed our blog closely, and her first words to me were, “Did you ever get a decent Lobster Roll?” Aunt Flo has passed away since then at the age of 97; but, we will be seeing Jack and Mary tomorrow. And so, our first opportunity to meet up with Susan evaporated.

Some three years later, on our second trip to Santorini, we were traveling around the Mediterranean on our honeymoon ship (the Nieuw Amsterdam) for our fifth anniversary, and from Facebook Sharon realized that Susan was also in the Mediterranean, seemingly just one day or two ahead of us. Then due to weather, and a missed port due to one port being swamped with refugees, our schedules changed, and we were to be in Santorini on the same day. There was a possibility of a reunion just after the fifty-year mark; but, it was not to be. Our ship was in early, and we were returning from tour within an hour or two of their group going out on tour. We tendered by their cruise ship on the way to ours; but, there was to be no reunion on that day either.

So, this is the third chance to meet; albeit, our fourth trip to Boston. On the last two trips we were traveling in the fall when Susan would not be in Boston; but, today the stars have aligned.

I got to watch the completion of the men’s semi-finals at Wimbledon; where, Djokovic was up two sets to one after winning the tie-breaker the day before. He dropped the fourth set and the match went into overtime. We went down to have breakfast, and I was quite pleased with my omelet. This was much better than the run-of-the-mill included breakfasts at many places, who often at best have scrambled something served buffet style. I had a ham-cheddar-onion-tomato-mushroom-jalapeño omelet. I turned Wimbledon back on after returning to the room and the Women’s Final had just started. Sharon just hates the grunting that the tennis player’s do, and she particularly doesn’t like it when it’s done by women players. But it’s the FINALS… at Wimbledon! I only got to watch the first set before Sharon let me know that it was time to go (fifteen minutes earlier than she’d previously said that we should leave). I’m wondering if the amount of grunting has anything to do with us leaving early. And we were a few minutes early and had to wait in the lobby of the restaurant Susan had recommended for us to meet. In responding to their recommendation of 12:30 PM for lunch, I had said “Food works for me at any time.” Sharon evidently passed that on; because, they said it works for them at any time as well. Sharon told me, “They’re Foodies.” Café Escadrille has been a restaurant since the early twentieth century and was conveniently near our hotel in Burlington. We waited about fifteen minutes when Nick popped his head through the front door, and eying Sharon, said, “I recognize you,” although they’d never met. Shortly Susan entered and we all said hi and proceeded to the hostess who was already to seat us. We’d checked in earlier and told her that we were waiting for them, and they’d confirmed the reservation.

We got a nice table by the window, and there was an ample menu to peruse. They just ordered tap water, I had an iced tea and Sharon had what she always orders, “Sierra Mist, Sprite, 7-Up… whatever you have.” I spotted the Lobster Roll right away, and at $22 it seemed a possibility. The Prime Rib Beef au jus sandwich looked good as well, as did many other things. The menu included shrimp cocktails and escargot, and everything looked good to me. The waiter came over with his particularly jovial Bostonian accent and offered up the Daily Specials and one soup that caught my attention: Marsala chicken soup. I went with the Lobster Roll with shoestring fries and chose a cup of the soup as well. Sharon got the au jus sandwich (also with shoestring fries) and Susan and Nick ordered two different kinds of salads, hers with blackened swordfish. I told Susan about the Lobster Roll that I’d ordered at Salem the day before, and they obviously approved of Salem as a place to eat… they seemed to approve of everything on the water. They’d made a couple of comments to each other that seemed to indicate that Burlington was too far from the water to order most seafood, either for safety reasons or freshness reasons. Susan noted that where they live their neighbor will often catch fish right in front of the house and they’ll have fresh caught fish often (even though they themselves don’t fish). I was wondering how she’d feel about eating seafood in Las Vegas. And about my Salem Lobster Roll, which I said had the option “Try it hot!” She asked, “Was it served with hot butter and no mayonnaise…?” And when I nodded yes, she said, “That’s a Connecticut Style Lobster Roll.” So that is something to look for in the future. Sharon noted that the way her cousin is a foodie, maybe I’m more related to them… just as she seemed closer to my un-foodie cousins a few days ago in New Jersey.

This week they will have been married for 40 years. I said, “Well, that tops our eight years.” I guess Nick thought I said two because he seemed startled, “Did you say, ‘two years’?” Sharon re-iterated, “No, eight years. We actually met over 40 years ago.” Susan then said to me, “And you’ve never been married before?” I confirmed that with a not and “That’s right.” “So… have you had a thing for her all these years?” I said, “We’ve always been good friends.” Sharon added, “We shared an office and worked together on some programs.” “But, you were interested in her, right?” Susan wanted to know. “She was married. It wasn’t something either of us thought about.” Then Sharon told how after Jim had died, that she came out to California on a business trip and looked up an old friend for dinner and I followed her home. I had to remind her that, “I was her third choice for dinner.” This always causes Sharon to grimace, and she always adds, “Kevin (her brother) was her first choice (he was busy) and Judy (her sister-in-law) was out of town…” I’m thinking, I was still third choice! Kismet!

There was much to catch up on over the past 50 years. Susan asked about Sharon’s mom and each of her 4 siblings. Sharon lamented that her younger sister is great grandmother which makes her feel older. They talked about their grandparents. Sharon knew her grand-father was a fireman in Boston but didn’t know he had been injured and disabled in the Cocoanut Grove Fire back in the early 40s. Some research for her to follow-up on.

After spending three hours with Susan and Nick we got all caught up for this trip but I’m sure there are more family stories for them to share in the future. They urged us to visit them in their shoreside home on our next trip east and we encouraged them to drop by when they make it out to Las Vegas.

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