THE LAKE Sisters Finally Meet -pt. 5

Sweet Cousin Michelle, David's daughter. I cannot wait to meet her. How could I put off meeting a brand new actual blood relative, directly related to my mother? Less than two weeks after our phone calls, I am on my way to Boston.

For the whole train ride I kept worrying if she would like me, if she would accept me and if her family would find me strange. After all I was this 'new cousin' that their Mom's Dad had located. They heard I was Jewish and that my life had been very different from theirs. Michelle had heard that my Mother was a professional rumba dancer, and all about my Father's shady life, and that I was obviously born out-of-wedlock, as they used to say. And on my part, I had never known Mormons before and I did not know what to expect. I was concerned. My friends said they were kidding but I don't think they were, when they laughingly warned me to be careful or they 'the Mormons' would try and convert me. They said that was the Gospel of all Mormons and I should be wary.

Just like some backward bible-belt Christians thought Jews had horns coming out of their heads, I too had some ridiculous notions as to what I would find. Prejudice, which I thought I had not a scintilla of, came rearing up it's ugly head.
When I arrived in the train station, I went outside to look for her but not knowing what she looked like without anyone standing there waiting for me... I started to panic. I tried to call her on my cell phone but realized I did not have her number in my phone. What I did have was the number of another cousin that called me as soon as she had heard I had been located. Cousin Marian, sister of David. She had called me as soon as she heard the news and told me she loved me as and could not wait to meet me in Utah at the coming reunion. She told me she had prayed David would find me as soon as she learned from Elaine that she thought she had a sister. Marian speaks with love in her voice, honest to God, she really does. When she told me she loved me, I knew she did. You can hear it in every word. Marian gave me Michelle's phone number and as I started to dial it, I saw a large white wagon stop in front of the station with a smiling young woman with dark hair waving to me. She knew me and I knew her. I hopped in the car and off we went to her house.

As the children came home from school, each was introduced to me and each showed me around the house, and the grounds and were terribly polite and charming. Michelle offered to take me to Staples so we could get copies of materials she had she thought I would be interested in and to make copies of my birth certificate and Ruth's death certificate for her files. We stopped so I could get a coffee and that's when I learned that she not only did not drink coffee, but nothing with caffeine in it at all, and of course, no alcohol of any kind. I was slowly learning the Mormon way. In the printers section we told the clerk our story and he could not stop asking us questions.

When we got home, the kids were asked to help prepare dinner and set the table which they all did. Before we sat down to eat, Matt had not yet come home from work, Michelle asked one of the girls to say Grace. Now I have had heard Grace said before, of course, having eaten many meals with my non-Jewish girlfriends and their families....but this time it really floored me. Little Kylie, her oldest girl, whom I think now is ten, and also shares a birthday with me of June 5, said Grace and thanked God for the food on the table and some other things that are all a blur now and then wrapped it up with, "And Thank You God for bringing our cousin Dolores into our lives and being part of our family now."

That did it! Tears, as usual and as everyone said Amen, I reached over and hugged and kissed Kylie. I told her that was the very first time anyone had ever included me in their prayers of Grace and I would never ever forget it. I asked her Mother if she had prompted her to do so and Michelle said "absolutely not". And I believe her!

When I returned to NYC that night, I was filled with confirmation that I indeed had a new family, that they loved me and I would love them forever.

Next, Elaine and I plan her visit to New York. No way we could wait until April. So in February, the day of the football finals between the Giants and the Red Sox, Elaine and3 of her daughters, arrived at my doorstep. Michelle also came down from Boston, because she wanted to meet Elaine, and had only heard about her from her father, David after he found her 5 years earlier. I had a small welcoming party with just a couple of friends who knew my story. When I opened the door, Elaine and I stared at each other, hugged, kissed and cried. At last, the Lake sisters are united!

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