So...who are you again?

Two weeks ago, my grandmother died, so we had cause for the whole extended family to get together.  Now my mom is one of 5 children, all of whom are married with kids, so this means a lot of people.  In this case though, all of my mom's aunts, uncles, and cousins were around, too.  Gramma was one of I think 7 kids, all of whom were also married with children.  Throw in all the neighbors, coworkers, and family friends from throughout the past 50+ years, and this meant LOTS of people that I probably haven't ever met, or if I had met them, it's likely been at least a decade since I last saw them.  Some of the names were familiar to me, if not the faces, and lots of these people at least knew of me if they didn't actually recognize me.

Sure enough, the combination of lots of people, people who think they should know who they are, or who vaguely know who you are, leads to lots of confusion and funny stories.

All evening at the wake, Little Sister and I had an ongoing competition with two of our cousins (who are brothers) to see who knew the most people there, outside of our generation and our aunts/uncles.  Since our parents live further away, they didn't have all the coworkers and friends that our cousins' mom  had there, so we lost pretty badly.  The funeral home was pretty packed all night - like I said, big family, and then a bunch of friends and in-laws (and even in-laws of in-laws at one point! so sweet! I hope I wind up with such awesome in-laws someday!) of everybody.  Between the two of us, Little Sister and I only knew 25 people.  It was pretty sad.  Lots of awkward introductions.

Whoever came up with the receiving line style of doing wakes (and weddings for that matter) should be shot.  They're miserable.  Generally speaking, the line at Gramma's wake consisted of Grandpa (who stood there chatting with EVERY single person who came through for FOUR hours - such a trooper) and the 5 kids and their spouses.  As the night went on, the line got shorter and shorter - people stepped out to sit for a few minutes, or find the restroom, or track somebody down to catch up, etc.  So at some point when the line looked rather short, I jumped in line with my aunts and uncles, and for a while Little Sister came with me too.  Some people could place me, but to help, the line I generally used was that I'm the oldest grandchild.  At one point when Little Sister was next to me, some woman I don't know gets to us, and while gesturing to both my sister and I, I tell her that "we're the oldest grandchild."  Right.  Sarah just looked at me like I'd lost my mind.  Which by that point I mostly had.

At the wake I was standing next to my youngest uncle for a while.  He's my mom's baby brother, and is actually closer in age to me than to my mom.  Within the span of ten minutes, one person asked if I were his wife, and another asked if I were his daughter.  Yikes.

[Side story.  My freshman year of high school, my parents got me tickets to see the Barenaked Ladies on New Year's Eve in Boston.  However they certainly weren't going to let 15-year-old me go into Boston on New Year's Eve unchaperoned.  So mom recruiting this uncle to take me.  At that point in time, I looked quite old for my age, and he still had his hair. :)  The 11 year age gap looked much smaller than it was, and even my grandmother make cracks about how it would look like we were on a date.]

I've mentioned before that my sister and I look quite similar.  This does not help out extended relatives trying to figure out who you are.  I had a number of people ask if I still lived at home...logical if I were my sister, who is a senior in high school.  Little Sister had a number of people ask how she was liking Arizona...

The funniest in my book though, was at the reception after the burial.  Little Sister and I were sitting at a table together, when somebody (one of mom's cousins? maybe?) came up and asked which of us was the senior in high school!  Now Little Sister really doesn't look older than her age, definitely not more than a couple of years.  Yeah, I could pass for a few years younger than I am, but I'm quite sure I don't look 17!  I could keep it together and swallow the laughter at most of the ridiculous things people said that week, but not this one.  We both burst out laughing on the spot.