Relatives from Russia

I feel like I've been thrust into the centre of a sweet small town story. Let me give you some history to put this odd little piece into place.

This is a picture of my mom's brother, Victor, whom I never had the privilege of meeting. Somehow he ended up working for the  in the Soviet Army, felling trees or something , marrying a beautiful Russian woman named Galya, having 3 children with her and dying after what sounded like a rather hard, sad life.  There was alcoholism involved and two out of his three children died of it as did his wife.  

He was a musical man who worked with metal making special screws (dreher - lathe operator) and he was a very loving devoted father.

Here he is below with his wife and children. His son Antoli (my cousin) is sitting on the far left. My mom and auntie managed to get Anatloi and his family out of Russia and into Germany in 1994 and they came to visit us in Canada a few years later.

Now fast forward 17 years and Patrice and I are in Germany wanting to make contact with my cousin Anatoli and his family.

We arrived at "the relatives" place yesterday afternoon after a strange night in a Hannover Hotel. We didn't particularly like that city as it was crazy to drive through and we kept getting lost and re-routed. Plus the area our hotel was in was dirty and noisy - near the train station.  Very unlike most of the Germany we had seen to this point.

The relatives consist of my only living first cousin from my mom's side, his wife, two daughters, their husbands and children.  They were all waiting for us on a Friday afternoon and we made our introductions on the back patio of their home.  Look at this lovely bunch of people that are connected to me!
By blood.
What a cool thing to have this reality fleshed out and so beautiful and real.

Family is a big deal to these precious people and even though I knew that it was important to come visit, it felt like a hurdle due to the language barrier (which has turned out to not be an issue) and the time since we've last seen them coupled with my extreme exhaustion.  And bathrooms of course.

But there was obviously no need for hesitation in coming.  These sweet and loving people have been treating us like royalty which is the way they operate.  They value "relation" and family in a very tangible way and they sure set aside time for us and went the extra mile.  For instance, I had booked a hotel in a neighbouring town knowing that the bathroom would most likely be an issue,  but Antatoli was so determined that we should stay with them that he removed the bathroom sink, installed a smaller one and set out some fancy ramps to get me up and down the stairs into the house.  They moved furniture as well so we could take over their master bedroom, so how was I to deny them the pleasure of hosting us?!

Haha.  Oh my.

The bathroom is definitely tricky as there are no bars anywhere near the toilet - it's just kind of sitting there at an odd angle in the middle of the room but thankfully Patrice is game to get me on and off when necessary.  We have raised the bar in togetherness on this trip.

My cousin and his wife live on the main floor of this spacious home and their one daughter Katharina and her husband Dima live upstairs with their two super sweet children, Amy and Timmy.  There are dinners together on weekends and their other daughter Helene and her family come about once a week or so.  They all treat each other with such kindness and flow together with such ease.  I detect no irritation and it is a very normal thing for them all to interact and share the care of the children.  In fact, Anatoli works with his son in law at a nearby factory so they see a lot of each other and they have been working together on the beautiful back yard. Seems pretty ideal although I'm sure there are challenges.

They put on an amazing spread for supper, each of the girls contributing something and we enjoyed the meal and company immensely. This was the main meal but there were two desserts following.
Both outrageously delicious and decadent.

They were impressed with my German, as was I.  I seem to be pulling words out of somewhere and we are able to communicate quite comfortably.

Their kitchen is just so much fun - the third red kitchen in the places we have stayed in on our trip.  A huge window in the back door lets in so much light and allows them to keep an eye on the kids when they are playing in the back yard.

I think I need a red kitchen to match my shoes and my car.
I really like red.