Halcyon Days

My family has always been international. My extended family lives all over the world, and my nuclear family is rarely all in the same place at the same time. At one point we were all in completely different places, several time zones from each other. For example, when I worked in Thailand, I used to call my parents early on a Sunday morning, and they would be answering early on a Saturday evening.

Right now my sister and her family are living in Japan. So we don't get to spend much time together. We tend to meet up in the summer and at Christmas. As I sit here on a dreary weekday morning, I am remembering the fun times we had this summer...

For almost the entire two months that he was here, my nephew insisted on calling me "Ganma". I would say, "Aunty", encouragingly. He would just look at me and repeat "Ganma". When I asked him if I looked like grandma, he nodded emphatically, "Yes". As though I'd asked the world's most stupid question. Okay, then...