My cousin Billy flew up from North Carolina for a wedding last week. Mom invited him to Syracuse Thursday night so that we could catch up with him before he got too busy with the festivities. Everyone else in the Heinisch family was out of town or busy, so it was only the four of us that night. I didn't mind as I hadn't seen Billy in quite some time and really enjoyed talking with him. Billy lived with us or with Granny and Paw Paw in Nappanee every summer until the one before Bunk died. We had so many shared memories together and it was a lot of fun reminiscing. We were all surprised when Billy remembered our family hosting Tony and Kenny for a couple of weeks during the summer months and running into them in Chicago several years later.
When Billy left Thursday night, we talked about getting together one more time before he flew back. With Doug in Florida and Cameron's golf matches I wasn't sure that that would be possible, but thankfully we were all able to make it work tonight. Billy met us in Syracuse and he, Doug, Cameron and I ate dinner at the Back Porch in Oakwood together. I had thought a lot about what we had talked about on Thursday night and had a few follow up questions for him - his last summer in Nappanee and our first visit together to Magic Kingdom the first year it opened for starters. It wasn't all a walk down memory lane as Cameron and Doug filled my cousin in on what we they had been up to recently as well. Billy also gave us his thoughts on living in Florida and why he moved to North Carolina. He updated us on "Little" Billy, Mary and Jessica's lives and we caught him up on Brett, Cal and Meg. Billy and I both agreed that Cameron definitely looked a lot like my brother, Bunk, especially with his long 1970s haircut. Tonight was a special one for me. I rarely get to visit with anyone who knew my brother as well as I did as a child. I thoroughly enjoyed that this evening and was glad that Doug and Cameron were there to share that time with me.
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