Thought I'd post a follow up on this story because last weekend we drove up to Minnesota and met Aunt Pat, his father's sister, and Uncle Randy. Also a cousin and her kids, her stepkids, a step cousin and her daughter.

He was nervous, he's so shy around strangers and it takes years before someone graduates from being a "stranger". But not this time. He was immediately comfortable. Cousin Christine is our age and all the kids were around our daughter's age. We played games, laughed a lot, ate great food...and there were tears. I made Aunt Pat cry within 5 minutes of arriving because I gave her a collection of photos of Iain & Nell that reminded me of things we've been told of his father.

We're getting over the "if only we could have met him" and moving on to trying to learn what we can about him, and getting to know the surviving family members. I'm looking at my family members with new gratitude. Appreciate the time we have together because it could have been different. Because some day we will lose each other.