Introduction

On Friday, June 3, 2011,  my aunt Elenore passed away, at the age of 92. She was the wife of Walt Flak, who was a brother of my mother, Lottie. Elenore and Walt had a son, Tommy, who arranged the funeral service for his mother.


On the way to the funeral home on Monday, June 6, to meet with the family, I remarked to my wife, Linda, that I had never known any of the Flak family members very well at all, and that I considered that to be pretty sad. 


At the funeral home, I started up a conversation with my cousin Larry, and confessed my sadness that we (my five brothers and one sister) were never close to their large family, although we all attended the same elementary school, and lived within a mile of each other. I indicated that I had heard that there had been a feud between our fathers at one time, and my father (Steve) could be hard-headed. Larry said the same about his father, Matt. Then my cousin Jim (Larry's brother) came over and we talked some more. I re-introduced Linda to them, although we had seen each other at previous events over the years, mostly funerals as it turns out. 


Linda and I decided to attend the funeral the next day, as we had not had a chance to talk with Tommy at the funeral home. After a very touching tribute to Elenore, we attended a luncheon, with Jim and Larry sitting next to us. We talked a lot and enjoyed ourselves very much. We decided to keep in touch, and I hope this web log (or something like it) will fit the bill. 


On the way out of the church, I mentioned to Tommy what we might have in mind, and he was immediately in favor of it. So, that's where we are right now.