A Silvan cousin arrived for a visit....

How delightful it was to watch a very large camper back into our long driveway Monday afternoon, knowing my second cousin was behind the wheel! Once he (John) and his wife (Linda) got out of the cab, we hugged as if we'd known each other always. Their smiles and eagerness matched mine as we lingered a moment to survey our gardens and then I led them into our home. It was the start of an adventure and I couldn't wait to begin.

John has my great Grandpa Juan Francisco Silvan Hernandez's blue eyes, although he is about 10-11" taller than our grandfather. He has been told he resembles Grandpa Silvan and it would be no surprise since his mother was Grandpa Silvan's daughter. However, my mother tells me (when she saw his picture) that he's the image of a young (Uncle) Celestino Silvan ~ Ah, heredity is a wondrous thing and DNA links are quite amazing.

Our visit included stories he shared about Uncle Agustino (Gus) and Uncle Celestino (Cel) and parts of his young life spent with them. I learned Uncle Gus loved fishing and baseball, specifically the San Francisco Giants; and John painted for Uncle Gus to earn money during his teenage summers... plus fishing, fishing and more fishing. He remembers Uncle Cel's love of motorcycles and seeing him and his wife (Aunt Mary Louise who just died a couple of weeks ago) in their 'leathers'. AND John and Linda told humorous stories of their life in Spain during his military years. Little bits of information will definitely go into MANUELA'S PETALS, such as the straw-tick mattresses that resembled a large pillow case and the corded rope strung between the 4 bed posts to hold the 'mattress'. Spain was a little backward due to Franco's influence in the 1970s and I have found progress was stunted to a degree... so in 1911, our ancestors probably slept on the same types of bedding!

All in all, we had a wonderful visit and I have great pictures to prove it. To top it off, Linda showed me various ways to market my books; she was filled with ideas about author events, a wine bottle with COOKING DRUNK book cover decoupaged on it, and........more.