All family in France are safe.    I have family who live in the suburbs of Paris.  Some work in the city.  Some socialize there.  After anxious waiting and phone calls, I found out all are home safe.

This reminds me of when there was a major natural disaster (it was either an earthquake or a mudslide) in Italy when we were little.  The waiting for the phone calls was stressful.  All were ok, but it sucks, nonetheless.

So this past week, someone contacted me on facebook.  He/she said they remembered seeing me from going out years ago and they were happy to see me out and about again.  Needless to say, the only reason I think anyone notices me is to laugh at me.  But this seemed genuine.  I had no clue as to who this was or even the gender.  Then he came up to me last night.  It was someone I recognized from eons ago too.  It makes me feel so good being approached by people who remember seeing me and not in a negative way.  I have always been made to feel that I was the outsider, not worth the trouble to socialize with.  Same with my sister.  So to hear people reminisce about seeing us out and about in a fond way...  Well, it makes me feel warm and gushy inside.  I guess I am not such a loser.

So how is this related to family in Europe?  Well, he is Hungarian.  Holy crap!  He immediately asked me if I spoke Hungarian!  In my flustered state, all I heard was "Magyarul?".  Ha ha...  And I was ashamed that I let my Hungarian lessons go.  He mentioned visiting with family in Budapest.  And I was reminded of when a long lost cousin of my dad's contacted him and found out I had recently been in Hungary.  His first question?  "Was she looking up family?"  So now, I vow to return to my lessons in earnest and doing the genealogical research.

The lesson?  There is an ocean between us.  Some of our more immediate family might forget about our roots.  But there are people over there that we have a connection to and if we wait too long, they will all be gone.