A belated Friday Five

[nanila]

1. Are you and your birth family close?

Yes (but also, it’s complicated).

2. How far away do you live from your various family members?

At least a few thousand miles from nearly all of my blood relatives. Much closer to my out-laws.

3. When was the last time you visited with relatives?Only about a month ago, but it already feels like ages

Comments

[ragnarok_08]

Here are my answers:

1) We're pretty close, but not in distance.

2)I live in a different state (VA) from my dad's side of the family (IL), and my cousins live in different parts of the country, such as California and Arizona.

3) My sister Maddie visited Chicago, where she saw our half-brother and half-sister years ago, just before the pandemic.

4) Not all the time, but only if they're in the same state.

5) Mostly through phone, email, and text.

[nanila]

It's so much easier, technologically, to stay in touch with distant family than it was when we only had landlines and letters. But also, it feels more pressured, because it does take energy to compose messages and select photos, and the expectations around communicating frequently are higher.