(Written Nov. 3, 2007) 2002 was an eventful year. Not as tumultuous as 2005, but nevertheless memorable. Unfortunately, I didn’t save the little website I created for that year’s Christmas newsletter. Fortunately, I still have the family portrait. So I thought I’d upload at least that, and try to recount what happened before I forget everything.
On Patriots Day, I ran my second Boston Marathon. The first was in 1985, when I finished in 3 hours 11 minutes. The pace in 2002 was much more leisurely (4 hours 8 minutes), which made for a more enjoyable day. Heartbreak Hill isn’t so bad when you don’t care how long it takes to climb it.
In May, I left the law firm I had been working at since 1990, the start of my legal career, to join Adams and Reese, as a member of the appellate team in the firm’s New Orleans office.
While these things were interesting, the best thing that happened in 2002 was a family reunion — or rather union, since many of us had never met before. Some explanation: My parents separated in 1960, when I was three years old, and eventually divorced. My mom brought the kids to New Orleans, and my dad moved to Miami, where he remarried. He and his second wife, Ruth, had two daughters, Kendra and Wendy. Due to estrangement, the New Orleans contingent never met the Miami contingent. That changed in 2002, when Kendra made contact. At upper left is a picture of me and my sisters Kendra, Pat, and Wendy.
As long as we were making family connections, we also re-established contact with our cousins, the children of our dad's brother Bob. After several e-mails, we organized a reunion (or union?) in Jacksonville, Florida, at the home of our cousin Cindy and her husband, David.
That Thanksgiving, Suzanne and I visited Kendra and her husband, John, in south Florida. Besides getting another chance to spend time with Kendra and Wendy, we also got to meet our stepmother, Ruth, and several members of her side of the family. (Sadly, John later died from injuries suffered in a car accident.)
Every year has its blessings, but 2002 seemed to have more than the usual number.
