Wednesday, March 7, 2007

A Surprise—I Can't Believe This Happened!

Yes, I know…this is WRITING DAY. But maybe this will qualify. The following surprise would not have happened, if I hadn’t been writing on my blog! Special thanks to the Gatekeeper who talked me into blogging.

Here’s the story.
I was blog surfing the other night and decided to slide into Janey Loree’s
Notes That Touch The Heart to see the pictures of her ride across the desert in a desert runner. Wow! I felt like I was in the jeep! Then I scrolled down and the previous post captured my interest. It said “Arizona 2007 Vacation”. Pictures of the beautiful desert landscape stirred my heart and brought back memories. (stay with me—the surprise is coming!)

My husband’s Aunt and Uncle owned a ranch and land in a sleepy little place called Arlington situated in the middle of the Arizona desert. My husband, during his teen years, spent the summers working around the ranch and helping to irrigate the cotton fields along with his cousin Kevin and Sam Senior. He saved enough in 3 summers to buy his first car. (I’m getting to the amazing SURPRSE—so hold on.)

Tom has taken me back to the ranch many times over the years, where I have enjoyed such adventures as picnics in the desert, viewing hieroglyphics on rocks, riding down the Gila river after a flood, going exploring in Uncle Bob’s jeep, enjoying star filled skies, and hunting scorpions under black light at night——scorpions GLOW! (Later they were placed into plastic curios like belt buckles and paper weights.)

So I left a comment for Janey—a brief description of what you read above mentioning “Arlington”. Nobody seems to know where “Arlington” is…at least in California…so I was quite surprised when Janey commented back...with exclamation points! Her great-grandfather had a ranch in Arlington. She mentioned his last name, and it was the same last name as Tom’s Uncle!!! It turns out that Uncle Bob, and Janey’s Grandfather are brothers! Wow!

I don’t know what else to say about this! It’s still sinking in! One never knows what will happen from one day to the next. Also, a very special thanks to Blog Village where I met Janey.
Those of you who have enjoyed Janey's warm and friendly comments on your blogs will know what I mean when I say that I couldn't have asked for a nicer person to be in a family with.

This makes me wonder if anyone else has ever unexpectedly met a family member through blogging, or a long lost friend, or anything surprising! It would be great to hear your stories!

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi, Cuz CB!!! This discovery is still sinking in for us too! Doesn't Uncle Bob and Aunt Alma's oldest daughter sell those "Scorpion Paperweights"? Well at least she used to!!!

I posted an article over at heartfeltnotes.blogspot.com too!

Sharon Lynne said...

Yes, her husband Willie made them and sold them! We have a belt buckle, and a tie. It's a string/rope sort of tie it synches up with a plastic see-through piece--with a small scorpion inside. I think it's packed away somewhere. I'd love to find it and photograph it for the blog!

JAM said...

That's a really amazing coinkydink.

I had a couple of good high schools friends who were brothers, and a couple of years after high school, we were talking and they mentioned their Grandma A. Hinton who lived where my Mom, a Hinton grew up. Turned out, we're distant cousins. We had known each other for years at school...

Crazy. Stuff like that blows my mind.

Oh, and the string/tie thingy is called a "bolo." My Dad was a wester clothes guy, and that's as close to a necktie as he got. He had all kinds of snazzy bolos, like most men have many regular neck ties.

The Gatekeeper said...

Hehehehehe, you guys sound like happy, happy, excited kids!!! So cool, you have the same memories. I wonder if you were in the same place at the same time somewhere along this journey.

Sharon Lynne said...

Jam--
How fun to find out that your good high school friends were distant cousins!

Yeah..I had forgotten that term "Bolo".
I love Bolo ties! But I won't wear that Scorpion one!

Biker Betty said...

Wow, that is pretty exciting!! No, I haven't met any long lost friends or family. But who knows what's in the future.

About your message on my blog. I hope your motorcycle gets fixed fast for you. I would be so heart broken to have mine break.

Stine said...

Nice one! No stories there, as yet, but you never know...
Your links look good - and your pics too! Thanks for coming back!

Marion said...

Wow, what amazing synchronicity! So that makes you and Janey cousins?

What a beautiful story!

Sharon Lynne said...

Thanks for stopping by!
Your question--"does that make you and Janey cousins?" Probably not...true cousins, but close enough for us!--- through the marriage of my husband's Aunt to her Great-Uncle.

Becky Wolfe said...

Amazing how small our world is. I've met some interesting people in blog-land, some of which I feel I know better than the people I'm face to face with each day.

Heart-warming story :)

Rosemary said...

I'm just now getting a chance to enjoy this wonderful story. It's truly amazing how lives can intersect in such strange ways, and I'm glad BLOG VILLAGE had a teensy weensy part in it.