Tegarah!

There is a grandson driving in the rain to see his grandfather. It's not urgent business because he really has the entire day to devote to this visit. But paying this visit is today's task and a task willingly seen through. A car pulls up Vivian street. Out runs a raincoat-bearing 23-year-old who proceeds to ring a bell and look back to the rain sheets where there is no other car parked. Grandpa's not here. "Hey signature!" someone yells from some unknown location. Upstairs? Across the street? The rain masks the starting points of noise. The 23-year-old looks down to the end of the quaint neighborhood where a lady is cupping her voice in her hands for the visitor to hear. Suddenly "Hey signature!" sounds like "They wentta church!"

I'm 23. Quickly I run back to the car and find this church, Holy Cross. I know it's nearby; I can't get too lost. Bingo, first try. I walk in behind the pews and sit on one of the raised seats in the way back to observe the mass and find out where Grandpa is seated. Bingo, first try. Wait, there are two heads that could be Grandpa's. One of them belongs to my uncle David who is lector for part of the mass. What a blast to see everyone! There must be 20 relatives of mine in Holy Cross as I sit there and proceed to receive Communion from my aunt Susan!
As the mass disassembles, the mass of Conroys assembles. As conversations begin to play out on smiles and nudges, they're cut short by uncle Jamie, "Hey, can't we carry this conversation to the house?" Suddenly Jamie's a diplomat of jest. Or jester of diplomacy. I'm not sure. Either way, we all head to "the house". Grandpa's house. Apparently, every Sunday every Conroy convenes post-mass en masse here. And apparently today is Sunday. I had lost track. So I get to catch up with all of the Conroy's. It's really great. There are about five younger cousins that I hadn't even met yet and a bunch I was certainly not uptodate with. With all of the hello's I easily forget that at least for me this is a goodbye, or as Conroy's say it, "Tegarah!"

A lot of the Conroy's leave but I stay this time. This time I'm here for a bit and listen to Grandpa's funny stories about falling off of boats whistling and remember stories about jumping off of bridges into newspapers and jellyfish! We watch aunt Susan's television series on DVD along with some snippets of the History channel over omellettes and tea made by Susan's friend, Jane, who speaks Chinese, travels, and writes! We also hear tell of piranhas 30 inches long in South America. I plan to avoid these! Or at least make them my dinner rather than the other way around!

There's a lot going on at the Conroy household and I can't imagine how much I've missed over the years. But even in one day, I've seen and heard a lot! Granpa and I hug as Susan snaps some photos. And we think of one year's time, when Grandpa plans to lead us into dancing the cha-cha at my sister Nicky's wedding! I wish all of the Conroys a great year until we meet again! And may your dancing skills improve tenfold over said time!
"Cha-cha on!" says your Landescaper, N8