The family history

written by the eldest son of the eldest son and yours truly has proved to be a valuable resource in unexpected ways.
One of the Senior Cats cousins died late on Sunday. It was not an unexpected death. His health was not good and he was not comfortable. 
His wife phoned to let us have the news. As soon as she said, "It's M... here" she didn't actually need to say more. I knew why she had rung. She was calm, perhaps even grateful that he was no longer suffering the extreme discomfort and indignity of the past few years.
We chatted for a moment. I passed her on to the Senior Cat. They chatted some more. When the conversation was over I phoned Middle Cat and we discussed how best to get the Senior Cat to the funeral which is on the other side of the city. He has to be somewhere else in the morning - or do we cancel that appointment? You know the sort of thing that happens when someone is 95 and has a limited amount of energy - but we will work something out.
It wasn't all that which made me think as much as another cousin ringing later in the day. 
She lives in another state and is 94. Coming to the funeral is not an option for her.
    "I got the book out," she told me and she didn't need to say which book. I knew. It was the family history.
Then she went on,
    "I could look at him there and...."
She went on to reminisce. No, it wasn't all sad by any means. She remembered her irritation at how her cousin used to follow her around when she went to the dairy farm my great-grandparents started in their retirement. She remembered how Great-grandma was not sympathetic when she was teased by her cousin. We laughed over some incidents that have become part of family lore.
And the family history must have been open in front of her because she went through R....'s immediate family. Did I know what this one and that one was doing now? 
     "I wouldn't have remembered so much if it hadn't been for the book," she told me. 
I passed her on to the Senior Cat and they chatted some more. I could hear him reminiscing about the good times.
We will never be able to repay my paternal great-grandmother for her fierce sense of Scottish clan and the way she kept each of her children informed through her letters. 
I am just glad we wrote the history in her honour - because it means that people like the Senior Cat and his cousins have something there to help them remember.