Cheryl

It’s one of those “just like yesterday” visits, yet we think it’s been two years since Cheryl and Virg have been here.  We were SO pleased when they responded to our “it’s been a long, long time” invitation and said they’d be able to come for a two-night stay!

As usual, they arrived laden – with gifts (two painted rock chickens by Cheryl, and a matching oven mitt and two bright red kitchen towels!) and food.  It’s not that we won’t feed them – it’s just what they do.  They bring all the makings for the first night’s dinner and Virg barbecues (steaks!) while Cheryl does the trimmings in the kitchen.  Our job is to eat and enjoy!

Cheryl is my cousin on the Espy side and, now that Willard has gone on to meet the ancestors in person, Cheryl’s brother Ralph is our family genealogist.  He says we are third cousins twice removed…  Mostly, we just think of ourselves as friends – a friendship that began when they lived here at the beach, probably about a mile due west from us.  They moved away in 2009 and, though they are in Lacy for half of the year, our visits have become more and more infrequent.

However, except for a few bits of “catch up” about family matters and changes on the Peninsula, our transition to the here-and-now from the once-and- was is seamless.  From our perspective, it helps a lot that Cheryl and Virg never seem to age.

Their secret is a totally healthy lifestyle – as far as we can tell.  They exercise.  They eat healthy and sparingly.  (The steak, they pointed out, is a rare treat for them.)  They walk and ride their bikes regularly.  They have well -rounded interests – are musicians, enjoy a place on Lake Chelan in summer with the attendant boating and water skiing, have forested property near Elma that Virg maintains, visit family yearly in Arizona about whom Cheryl records and creates fabulous books.  Really, they are the poster children for retirement years!

And, somehow, they make us feel that we are doing just fine, too. When they leave us on Saturday, I’m pretty sure I won’t feel guilty that I don’t do all those healthy lifestyle things.  I’ll just be ever-grateful that I know people who do and… that they are cousins!!  Yay!