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Published: February 24th 2024
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So, my cousin, Keith, with the sniffles does have COVID which is very bad timing. On the plus side he also lives in Casino, so Judy sees him regularly anyway. On the negative side, Judy’s other brothers are visiting from Queensland and Victoria, so it is a missed opportunity to have all five of them in the same place at the same time. Very disappointing.
We missed catching up with Keith and Shirley in June last year because they had moved to Casino without me knowing! When we passed through last year, Judy and Mahlon were away so we missed them, but we could have visited with Keith and Shirley if we had known that they had moved to Casino. My cousins are a nomadic bunch and it’s hard to keep track of them! We arranged to pop around tomorrow afternoon for an appropriately socially distanced catch-up.
To start the day with some exercise we walked south on Centre Street to the Richmond River. At the river we took the riverside path across to the end of West Street and returned to the motel via West Street and Pratt Street.
We popped around to Judy’s to catch up
(Back) Judy and John, (Front) Keith and Ian
Taken a few weeks before the party without Rodney with some of the other rellos in town for the Birthday Bash. Mahlon’s older sister was in town along with her granddaughter. Even their attendance was a bit of a drama with their Virgin flight out of Melbourne cancelled on Wednesday. Fortunately, they were able to fly up on Thursday.
We also met Judy and Mahlon’s youngest son, Ben, and his wife Tania. It was great to meet Tania especially as we have corresponded on Messenger quite a bit identifying old family photos and working out our family history.
We drove back into town to buy some salad rolls for lunch. After lunch Tania ventured down to our hotel to have a look through the folder of family photos, news clippings and documents that I had brought up with me. Tania was very excited over some of the family documents that I have. When Nana moved into care, Mum found a box of treasures in the outhouse! After Mum passed away, I found myself the custodian of all of these photos and documents. I have scanned some, but I really must get all of them scanned and put them in the group page that Tania has set up
Mahlon and Judy
80 years young! in OneDrive. Tania says she is more than happy to become the custodian of the documents in the future when I want/need to pass them on.
And then it was time for the Main Event of this holiday, the combined 80
th Birthday Party for Mahlon and Judy. We signed in again at the RSM Club and made our way to The Den which had been reserved for our family function.
All four of Judy and Mahlon’s children were able to attend and most of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Also in attendance were Mahlon’s sister and great niece, three of Judy’s four brothers, a few of their caravanning friends and Bernie and me, the cousin from down south!
I had a good catch up with Elizabeth my cousin Rodney’s wife. Although Rodney and Elizabeth live in Warragul we don’t see them any more often than the cousins in northern NSW. Every time we do catch up, we say that we should rectify that but somehow, our reunions remain few and far between.
The celebrations went really well, and we got to hear some interesting stories during the open mike session, ha, ha. We went back to the
house after the party and Judy was adamant that they’re not having any more big parties – it’s too exhausting!
Steps: 8,695 (5.87kms)
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