My Cousin

There are a lot of things I like about living in Boston that I didn’t like about the area where I grew up in Maryland. But I do miss my family, which particularly on my father’s side is very close, and nothing kills me like my 10-year old cousin Hannah, whose birthday is today.

She’s far from my closest relative, but whenever I see her (which is not very often), I get the biggest guilt trip you could imagine. She and her mother drove down from Pennsylvania for my birthday (I was in Maryland at the time), and when she walked into the restaurant where we were meeting for dinner, she dashed across the room screaming, “Andrew! It’s been so long!”

What 10-year old talks like that?

And when I left, she literally put one hands on her hip, wagged her finger at me, and said quite sternly, “Don’t make it so long next time!”

If I saw the scene in a movie, I would think it was cliched, shameless heartstring-tugging. Just imagine this adorable little girl, tall with shiny red hair down to her waist and a bit of a lisp, singing to me, “I’ll see you at Cwissmass.” Kills me.