Well... to continue with looking back on the year(s)

Two people made a sudden entrance into my life when I was about fourteen or so. Moved into 'da block', freshly married, and beautiful.

I fell instantly 'in-love', they were so beautiful. Especially with the wife at first. Tall, elegant, kind, and so very funny.... and from another world, hey, NEW YAWK. She turned heads, and I was so silly... I'd have done cartwheels if only to get a moment's attention. He was my cousin, very tall, austere, and also very nice, and turned out to have an immense amount of patience, because, oh wow, I was 'in-love'. And absolutely pathetic, couldn't hide it, it hit me with the power of a thousand suns.

So I was 'the PEST'. I couldn't get enough of them, I was so infatuated. And was horrible. Growing up in a drab corporation tenement building, well, there wasn't much glamour to be found, and they were it, and I wanted EVERY moment. I was awful.

He was a cousin of mine. And for me, she was 'the goddess'. And she soon had a baby, a girl, and I was there from the start of her life, baby-sitting. He'd been in the military, and the job market was so terrible, he had a very rough time, and eventually re-upped.

Just before 'the girl' was born, they utterly surprised me, and took me to visit New Yawk, which was so unimagineable to me, I thought I had died and gone to Hollywood. And made myself even MORE absurd, because I took a mess of clothes for a two day stretch, and changed three times a day---seemingly to their amusement, because I thought people there did that.

We were at her father's house in Queens. They took me into Manhattan for a day I will NEVER forget. They made everything magical. One thing confused me at first. We took the ferry to Staten Island, got off, and they said, 'This way, we're going back.' And I thought, 'Why come here if there's nothing to see?' And then I learned why. We were half-way across, it had gotten dark, and the entire sky-line lit up.

That was Christmas and New Year's all rolled into one, it was so beautiful, and so very thoughtful. Unforgettable. We ate in Chinatown, they chaperoned me through Times Square, and I just gawked. I'll never forget that, and how kind it was.

We had the usual hum-drum life after. Sometimes they did mad-cap things. 'Let's go to New Yawk for a cuppa corfee.' and before I knew it, we were on the way, six hours down, six back. And we had corfee and a chat.

I took care of their first-borns for the first five years, till they moved away to a village near the coast. I was there for visits a few times. It was beautiful.... but when I watch Desperate Housewives, that road sort of superimposes itself on me, and makes me laugh.

We've remained in contact over many decades. And they visited. Often. So it was my turn, and I tried to return that wonderful gift they gave me. To make up for all the peskiness that was my young self. And give them some joy. And show them some awesome things in my new world. I think I half-succeeded....

What they taught me? She taught me snark, but I was already a bit of that even in young. She also taught me that you can take it only so far. He taught me the value of patience, and following orders. (I refer to the dread clamming incident... he told me to stay put, and I followed where he was going.... and ended up knee-deep in a bog, and it took three people to pull me out. Thinking, 'Oh shit, now I know what quicksand must be like.' Another embarassing adolescent idiocy...)

They weren't perfect, no one ever is. But came damned near to it. Like shooting stars zooming across one's horizon, and me catching the tail and basking in the glow for just a short while. The glow braked the fall, and remained in the heart. Good people.

They help and form you without you knowing they are doing it.

That's more valuable than diamonds, or precious stones, or anything.

So much for looking back on the year. People of influence, hey.