Reunion and Memories

I’m preparing for a trip to Mexico next month. This will be different than my time last year because it includes a family reunion. My nuclear family here in Winnipeg lived quite isolated from the pack of cousins out west in BC or back in Europe. Perhaps that’s why I’ve been drawn to writing family stories … I’ve always lacked that connection.

On the Baltic

Growing up without grandparents or cousins, I got used to having no extended family and now I don’t miss having them in my daily orbit. You can’t miss what you’ve never had. Great friends more than make up for lack of family.  

On the Pacific 

But I am curious. How have the cousins dealt with family history? We share grandparents murdered under Stalin’s regime. We share lost windmills, East Prussian cooking, and folksongs. We’ve inherited unresolved trauma from war, homelessness, hunger, rape and guilt. These were our mothers, aunts and cousins who didn’t want to talk about what happened. These were our uncles who killed under Hitler’s orders. 

This family reunion will be interesting. As we walk the beaches of Mexico’s Pacific coast I’ll be thinking of the beaches I biked beside the Baltic … of the beaches near Palmnicken (now Yantarny) where Stuffhof prisoners were forced into icy waters … nothing like the sun-kissed sands of Mexico. Family reunions are for survivors. 

Baltic memorial to victims of death march